The Business of Healthcare

Sure, there may be a change but it won't address the root problems.

1. HealthCare costs are too expensive because the providers are charging too much. I don't live in a huge city like Chicago or Detroit so I don't have alot of choices. I work for a fortune 500 company and my wife has cancer. We get EOBs every week. We see $1000 MRIs and ct scans negotiated down to $300, $9000 infusions for her chemo negotiated down to $4000, etc. These are negotiated discounts that our insurance company has made with providers that are in-network. This sure looks like greed on the part of the health care providers.

2. Think about it. In addition to greed HealthCare costs are high for other reasons. It's a trickle down affect. Higher malpractice insurance, etc. And everyone likes to skirt the issue but illegal immigration adds to our costs too. These are uninsured individuals in almost all cases.

3. I find these discussions of mandatory private HealthCare insurance rediculous. Do you really expect illegals to do this? Do they buy car insurance now where it's mandatory? If they don't what's our government going to do, deport them? They don't now so why assume they will just because they don't have insurance. So guess what, the individual will still pay for uninsured people through their rediculously high premiums.

4. Great, so we'll make provisions for the poor in this mandatory private insurance deal. That's good, don't get me wrong, but aren't we just shifting who deals with the insurance company? How exactly is that "reform"? How about the people that right now have insurance, have a house and nest egg, etc but due to HealthCare premiums, medicine, and non-covered items are dwindling their savings to $0? So when they hit $0 then they can get assistance? Sounds like a good plan to me.

What's the difference between a health care economist and a snake oil salesman?
The snake oil salesman knows he's lying to you. I'm being generous by avoiding proponents of this piece of legislative poison snake oil.

There were so many dishonest and misleading remarks made by Tom's expert guests that he owes the listeners another show featuring skeptics.

1. Massachusetts is not offering tax breaks for those forced to buy private health insurance. What Massachusetts is doing is applying increasingly punitive financial penalties for those that "opt out". In the first year you lose your personal exemption an approximately $200 penalty. After 2008 our warm fuzzy humanist blue state penalizes "opt outers" 50% of what the state deems affordable for the extorted. For a 57 year old that could easily be $3000 to $4000.

2. The individual who claimed Massachusetts is offering heavily subsidized policies was being misleading. He was quick to toss out "for families earning up to $60,000" to make it sound easily affordable. He ignored the fact that individuals earing just over $29,000 would not receive subsidies. Anyone familiar with the high cost of living in Massachusetts and cost of housing in particular knows that $29,000 doesn't afford a middle class lifestyle. He also ignored the fact that policies are made expensive by the many cost bloating mandates piled on by Massachusetts lawmakers. For example Massachusetts covers IVF treatments. Thus a 57 yo is forced to pay premiums that might help a 30 yo give birth to triplet preemies that require expensive postnatal care.

3. Even if tax breaks are tossed into the mix the Massachusetts and California plans continue unfair tax advantaged treatment for employer based plans. Employers get to deduct premiums paid to private insurers and covered employees don't have to pay taxes on this extra imputed income. Even BUSH recognizes this. The suggestion that uninsured workers be able to deduct insurance premiums is an unfunny joke.
Consider the example of Jane and Ann. Jane is 40 earns $30,000 in Massachusetts from two jobs. Ann is 40 earns $30,000 from a generous employer who pays for her Blue Cross. The premiums on Ann's policy is about $4800 per year. Thus her real income is $34800 with $4800 tax free. OTOH Jane is required to buy her Blue Cross and pay must pay $4800 after tax. Thus she's left with 25200 to live on. But at least she gets a tax deduction right? Well, now that depends if she can itemize. The standard deduction is $5150 which exceeds those $4800 in premiums.

4. The current plans continue age discrimination regardless of your health or behavior. In fact Massachusetts makes it even worse. They have created special "young peoples" plans the offer $175 /month premiums for those under 37. And above that age the premiums rise rapidly. Thus a healthy active, non smoking, non drinking 40 year old pays more than twice the premiums paid by a 36 year old obese, beer drinking, cigarette smoking couch potato.

5. The comparison between single payer plans in other countries like Canada was grossly misleading. Rationing which we call here triage happens in all health care systems. That said one need only visit the Kaiser foundation website to see that we spend ~$2 for each $1 spent by the average OECD industrial nation.

http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm

And if you think we get what we pay for think again or look at this

Excessive medical expenses:Study finds that half of health care dollars are wastedhttp://preview.tinyurl.com/2ydzga

How ironic the study comes from the same ivory tower as our health economist

On second thought. I apologize to snake oil salesmen for comparing them to health care economists.

I agree with Rick. The listeners are owed another show on this. I'm not necessarily against private insurance instead of employer provided, however, it needs to be setup properly, honestly, and fairly.

My wife is fighting cancer and has some other health issues. She and I are non-smokers, non-drinkers, and not overweight. I'm essentially forced to stay working for my current employer for the insurance even though I don't want to. I wish we would have had private insurance before she got sick. Now, if I quit I could go the COBRA route for 18 months. We met our $4500 in-network deductible for 2007 January 19th. My premiums under COBRA for June through January will cost me $750/month! Then for 2008 I'm guaranteed an even higher deductible and higher premiums. Even at current costs I'd be at $9000 in premiums plus at least $4500 in deductibles.

I wonder if $750/month w/$4500 deductible would be considered "affordable" under these plans and how they'd cover pre-existing conditions, etc. How exactly will insurance companies be able to cover someone like my wife at an "affordable premium"? Their going to loose money ... big time. Insurance companies don't like to loose money.

IMO, tying the type of health care one can get to the place one works is crazy. For years I worked at a company with excellent health care. Then came the dot-com bust, I was laid off, and my access to that coverage, at those rates, was suddenly denied to me. *I* hadn't changed. I was still exactly the same health risk. Why should my access to a health plan change?

Now I work for a very small company that does its best to provide good coverage, but it simply doesn't have the leverage to get the kind or coverage and rates my previous employer with 20,000 employees had. Every year they scramble to get us a new health plan that's decent and affordable, but the carrier may change, the policy may change, and for a month or so it's a major hassle to submit any claim until "the paperwork" is all complete. Why should I (or, for that matter, my company) have to go through all that grief every year?

The only sane solution I see is single-payer. Nay-sayers have dire predictions about all the evils of single-payer coverage. As best I can tell, NONE of the suggested catastrophes are inherent in a single-payer system. They MIGHT happen, but with proper oversight they won't.

There's no job security thats why I refuse to work for anyone but myself! I have so many people everyday that join our organization who come from corporate worlds, doctors, chiropractors, etc.... because of lay offs or can't do what they were trained to do because of injuries and are just left hanging. Don't settle for something you have no control over !
I not only can pay for my own healthcare now, I rarely need it because of Ayurveda!
Try it, it will reduce your health costs and increase your prosperity.

GO LOOK: www.juicyproprietress.restoringyouryouth.com/gath

OPPORTUNITY: www.juicyproprietress.zfreedom.com/gath

1.888.548.5414 or 928.607.4069