Access to basic health care is not a right of citizenship in America.
During the bleak six years of the Bush regime, the number of Americans without health insurance has increased by 6.2 million, while health care premiums have increased by 73 percent. Workers, families and businesses have struggled to cope with rising premiums and diminishing benefits.
With healthcare costs soaring, more Americans are losing their coverage. We hear from Kossacks every single day who descibe "doing without".
I couldn't get this comment from Kossack Nina Katarina, out of my mind.
Since we lost our health coverage, it's been 'do without' for me. Which I know is going to bite me in the long run. My teeth are telling me that fairly constantly. Ouch.
But my husband's diabetes medications cost just a little less than health coverage copays would cost us, so we roll those dice every day, and hope to last until my contract turns into permanent work. If it ever does.
Health insurance is essentially unaffordable and it's increasingly a luxury only the most affluent Americans can afford.
And those of us who are privileged have insurance, recognize that we must run a depraved gauntlet to get these predatory monsters to honor their contractual obligations and approve necessary medical care and medications.
The feeble, grotesque response of the government to the implosion of our healthcare system, which is evolving into a humanitarian crisis is to suggest we comparison shop and clip coupons. This is what Mr. Leavitt said yesterday.
"We're all about being cost-conscious," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. "It's just the American way. We clip coupons. We check for bargain flights on the Web. We carefully research major purchases. But when it comes to health care, we lack the tools to compare either quality or the costs."
http://www.usatoday.com/...
The American people are also being encouraged to receive their healthcare in the mall. This is our president waxing eloquent yesterday on the newest rage in healthcare savings, MinuteClinic.
MR. HOWE: No, actually, I have to give credit, there were other groups. There were physicians and entrepreneurs that devised the mechanism, devised the innovation that MinuteClinic really represents.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, well, tell people what MinuteClinic is. If you haven't heard about it, it's worth listening.
. . .THE PRESIDENT: So do you have one in a shopping mall?
MR. HOWE: Absolutely. We have one in the Eden Prairie Mall right over here in Minnesota.
THE PRESIDENT: Really? Isn't that interesting.
MR. HOWE: And the idea --
THE PRESIDENT: A person walking down there looking, and says, here's the -- if you need help, here are the costs.
MR. HOWE: That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: Posted right there for them to see on --
. . .THE PRESIDENT: And are people going?
MR. HOWE: Well, in the last six years, we've completed 500,000 patient visits, we've had no malpractice claims, consumers tell us that their patient satisfaction runs between 97 and 98 percent, 99.6 percent of our patients tell us they'd use the service again, refer it to family and friend. Clearly, the providers we selected do a tremendous job making the emotional connection that delivers the end result that we're really looking for.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
You're damn right "they're coming", 47 million Americans without health insurance are coming. Here's a link to the MinuteClinic web site: http://www.minuteclinic.com/
Personally, I think any device that delivers afforable healthcare to 47 million Americans who otherwise would go without or go a hospital emergency room and then end up filing for bankruptcy is a blessing.
But make no mistake, the proliferation of these clinics is an acknowledgement that the status quo (47 million uninsured Americans) is here to stay--certainly with the Family Values extremists in control of our government.
There's a logical connection between what Mister Bush calls "consumer driven" health care, and the rise of assembly line, drive-through health clinics. They're cheap, if not cheap, certainly somewhat more affordable. And it's been repeatedly demonstrated that when you give a person a high deductible health plan combined with a health saving account, they will delay obtaining healthcare and then as a last resort seek out the least expensive option.
Some of the nation's largest pharmacy chains -- including Rite Aid Corp., CVS Corp. and Osco Drug -- as well as major retail outlets, such as Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., now have such clinics on site in some locations. At some locations, patients are given pagers so that they can shop while waiting to see the nurse.
But it's important to understand something very clearly, consumer driven healthcare is not good medicine.
You need only read what follows from the Commonwealth Fund to understand why.
Some maintain that HSAs, coupled with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), are an important part of the solution for the cost, quality, and insurance problems that plague the U.S. health care system. Asking families to pay more out-of-pocket, the reasoning goes, will create more prudent consumers of health care, driving down growth in health care costs and improving the quality of care as providers compete for patients. And the tax incentives of HSAs will lure previously uninsured people into the individual market, reducing the numbers of families without health insurance.
But while it is comforting to believe that such a simple idea could help solve our health care problems, nearly all evidence gathered to date about HSAs and HDHPs points to the contrary. Indeed, there is evidence that encouraging people to join such health plans might act as salt on a wound, exacerbating some of the very maladies that undermine our health care system's ability to perform at its highest level.
http://www.cmwf.org/...
"Salt on a wound".
Higher Patient Cost-Sharing Is the Wrong Prescription
Americans already pay far more out-of-pocket for their health care than citizens in any other industrialized country.
Real per capita out-of-pocket spending has been steadily rising since the late 1990s. Combined with sluggish growth in real incomes, families are spending increasingly more of their incomes on medical costs.
There is considerable evidence that high out-of-pocket costs lead patients to decide against getting the health care they need.
Rising out-of-pocket costs reduce people's ability to save for the future.
Early Experience with HSA-Eligible HDHPs Reveals Low Enrollment, Low Satisfaction, High Out-of-Pocket Costs, and Cost-Related Access Problems
Few people are currently enrolled in HSA-eligible HDHPs; those who are enrolled are much less satisfied with many aspects of their health care than adults in more comprehensive plans.
People in these plans allocate substantial amounts of income to their health care, especially those who have poorer health or lower incomes.
People in HDHPs are far more likely to delay, avoid, or skip health care because of cost. Problems are particularly pronounced among those with poorer health or lower incomes.
People in these plans are more cost-conscious consumers of health care: they are more likely to ask for lower-priced drugs and more likely to discuss with their doctors different treatment options and the cost of care.
Few Americans in any health plan have the information they need to make decisions. Just 12 to 16 percent of insured adults have information from their health plan on the quality or cost of care provided by their doctors and hospitals.
. . .Most health care costs are incurred by very sick patients, often under emergency conditions. Shopping for the best physician or hospital is impractical in such circumstances.
Wall Street is poised and ready to pounce. Wall Street is salivating for all those HSA accounts. Health Savings Accounts are about corporate welfare, just like Medicare D is designed as a giveway to the pharmaceutical industry.
Always remember, in George Bush's America, healthcare is by, for, and about Wall Street.
Bank of America, J. P. Morgan Chase, Fidelity Investments and hundreds of others are hoping to capitalize on the latest wrinkle in medical care paid by consumers: health savings accounts, which have been around since 2003 but are moving to the fore of the national agenda in anticipation of the State of the Union address on Tuesday.
These supercharged checking accounts, which must be linked to a high-deductible health insurance plan, allow consumers to invest their own money for current and future medical expenses and have it grow tax-free.
http://www.nytimes.com/...