I have been a Kos reader for a couple of years and have never before been compelled to write a diary. The issues have become so significant however that it is time to speak up. Both individuals and companies are being strangled by the high cost of Healthcare. Costs are up and benefits are down, and God help you if you have a pre-existing condition. I have tried to find something that clearly illustrates the problem, and stumbled on an article that does so clearly.
Over the past several weeks I have tracked the debate regarding the Public Option for Healthcare and the reluctance in Congress to even consider it even though it has significant public support. Personally, I have one of the high deductible personal insurance policies, and pay extremely high premiums for what is in effect catastrophic coverage.
http://www.chron.com/...
"This lack of competition is bankrupting working families and small businesses and depriving consumers of choice," said Justin Berrier, a researcher who contributed to the report by Health Care for America Now, a national organization representing more 1,000 groups advocating health care reform. "The health insurance industry needs to work for consumers instead of shareholders."
This is what really stunned me:
Berrier said insurance companies’ profits between 2000 and 2007 belie their arguments. He noted that the net incomes of the 10 largest insurance companies grew from $2.44 billion in 2000 to $12.8 billion in 2007.
In other words their net income has increased by 525% between 2000 and 2007. Talk about a growth industry. I rechecked my calculations twice.
The article goes on to recap the increase in premiums relative to wages:
During that time, Texas premiums have increased 87 percent, according to the report — 5.8 times faster than wages. For family health coverage, the average annual combined premium for employers and employees rose from $6,635 to $12,403.
This must be nice as a business model, but at what point does a company go from making a fair profit to being greedy? At what point does private profit conflict with what is in the public interest?
This illustrates why the insurance industry recently stated that they could cut premiums by 2 Trillion dollars, although it was followed by a subsequent retraction. I'm just a simple guy from Texas. I'm in a red state with an asshat for a Governor named Rick Perry - you know, the guy that wanted to secede from the United States. But I have a couple of questions.
If premiums doubled over the past seven years, will they double again? If they do who will be able to afford the premiums? Will this help small business? After all small business is the engine that drives our economy. But this isn't limited to Texas.
Ninety-four percent of insurance markets, Texas among them, fit the Justice Department’s definition of a "highly concentrated" market, according to the AMA. In the past 13 years, there have been more than 400 corporate mergers involving health insurers.
So how is this going to change if there isn't a public option? This is a question I would dearly like for my representatives to answer, but sadly they are Republican and even less likely to be responsive to such a question. I do know that it will take some political courage to prevail in getting a public option - something that seems to be lacking in our Congress. But as the comedian Will Rodgers put it so many years ago "We'e got the best Congress that money can buy."
And so it goes from Deep in the Heart of Texas.