I can't do any better than
bonddad this morning.
The reality remains: A healthcare bloodbath is as imminent as the collapse of the housing market.
These are the dreadful facts.
Yesterday, Craig Barrett the chairman of Intel Corp, the largest computer chip maker in the world said:
Intel Corp. chairman Craig Barrett warned Tuesday that U.S. jobs will continue to move offshore at a rapid pace unless corporate America exerts its power to force the health care industry to adopt systems that will cut costs and improve efficiency.
``Every job that can be moved out of the United States will be moved out ... because of health care costs,'' which averaged more than $6,000 per person in 2004, Barrett said at a conference sponsored by eHealth Initiative, a non-profit coalition of health information technology interest groups.
http://www.sunherald.com/...
In an effort to deal with the absolute
unaffordability of health insurance, the largest HMO in the nation,
Kaiser Permanente in California, yesterday rolled out a new option for the beleaguered residents of the Golden State, the disasterous
Health Savings Account scheme.
Kaiser Permanente -- which helped shape the way health care is delivered in the United States -- was founded on the principle that all members are entitled to the same level of coverage, whether they are entry-level employees or corporate CEOs.
Now, though, under pressure from a rapidly changing market, the nation's first health maintenance organization has rolled out an array of coverage options that mark a major departure from its traditional comprehensive-care coverage.
Oakland's Kaiser, which covers about a third of California's insured residents, recently began offering:
-- High-deductible health plans, in which members pay a larger share of bills in exchange for lower premiums.
-- A high-deductible plan compatible with health savings accounts, the pretax savings vehicle pushed by the Bush administration as one response to rising insurance costs.
http://sfgate.com/...
Health Savings Accounts are but the most vivid example of the abject failure of the United states to deliver affordable healthcare to all its citizens.
Health savings Accounts require enrollees to pay out-of- pocket for their heath care. Study after study has demonstrated conclusively that people enrolled in an HSA, will choose to defer and delay healthcare.
The absurb and very dangerous rationale for Health savings Accounts is that the primary reason why health care costs are soaring is that most of the time when people enter the medical marketplace, they are spending someone else's money. When patients pay their own medical bills, they are very frugal consumers. Of course, they become judicious spenders. That's what it's all about: healthcare is unaffordable. Only the rich dare get sick.
I wrote a diary the other day about a recent GAO report on health savings accounts. You can read it here:
The GAO report Mr. Bush doesn't want you to see. HSAs "only good for healthy consumers"
http://www.dailykos.com/...
HSA-eligible plan enrollees generally had higher incomes than
comparison groups, but data on age differences were inconclusive. In
2004, 51 percent of tax filers reporting an HSA contribution had an
adjusted gross income of $75,000 or more, compared with 18 percent of
all tax filers under 65 years old.
. . .HSA-eligible plan enrollees who participated in GAO's focus groups
generally reported positive experiences, but most would not recommend
the plans to all consumers. Participants enrolled in the plans
generally understood the key attributes of their plan. Few participants
reported researching cost before obtaining health care services,
although many researched the cost of prescription drugs. Most
participants were satisfied with their HSA-eligible plan and would
recommend these plans to healthy consumers, but not to those who use
maintenance medication, have a chronic condition, have children, or may
not have the funds to meet the high deductible.
http://www.gao.gov/....
Conservative, right-wing proponents of Health savings Accounts argue that people are less likely to be prudent, careful shoppers if an insurance company is picking up the tab. Thus, the increase in spending has occurred because third parties -- employers, insurance companies or government -- pay almost all the bills. What bullshit!
Please recognize that Kaiser is offering HSAs because businesses can no longer afford more tradional coverage options.
On their face, high-deductible policies and health savings accounts seem antithetic to what Henry Kaiser envisioned when he pioneered the nation's first prepaid health plan for workers at Richmond's shipyards more than 60 years ago.
But Kaiser officials emphasize that the new offerings are not meant to replace its core coverage. Rather, they represent a realization that many businesses and individuals can't afford traditional Kaiser plans and need more options.
Unregulated private for-profit insurance has not and will not solve the current problems of excess cost and 46 million uninsured Americans. Health care is unlike any other commodity in our economy.
Every Western industrialized nation except for the United States mandates that everyone should be entitled to the same care, regardless of the ability to pay. However, private insurance, because it needs to generate profit, tries to exclude those at high risk, thus limiting the pool and reducing payouts for even those who dutifully pay skyrocketing monthly premiums.
Mal-Mart one of the most, if not the most employee-unfriendly companies in the nation, announced yesterday that new-hires would only receive coverage through High Deductible Health savings Accounts. Appropriately, The Chicago Sun-Times headlined its article, HEALTH HIT FOR NEW WAL-MART WORKERS. Enough said.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will stop offering traditional low-deductible health plans for new hires next year in favor of low-premium plans with higher deductibles, a move it says will put more health care money and choices in the hands of its more than 1.3 million U.S. workers.
Union-backed Wal-Mart critics, including WakeUpWalMart.com, who made the change public Tuesday based on internal company documents, claimed the nation's largest private employer was pushing the rising costs of health care onto its workers.
Wal-Mart confirmed that it will drop traditional plans for new hires beginning Jan. 1. Those plans offer annual deductibles as low as $350 for a yearly premium of $1,043 for single-person coverage.
New hires from next year will only be able to sign up for one of two plans that have premiums as low as $11 a month but annual deductibles starting at $1,000 for most medical expenses as well as separate deductibles for special events, like outpatient treatment, and for prescriptions.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Yesterday the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that the cost of health insurance premiums is rising faster than wages and inflation.
The average cost of a family insurance plan that Americans get through their jobs has risen another 7.7 percent this year, to $11,500, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In only seven years, the cost has doubled, while incomes and company revenue, which pay for health insurance, havent risen nearly as much.
Premiums for employer-sponsored health coverage rose an average 7.7 percent in 2006, less than the 9.2 percent increase recorded in 2005 and the recent peak of 13.9 percent in 2003, according to the 2006 Employer Health Benefits Survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET). Key findings from the survey were also published today as a Health Affairs Web Exclusive.
http://www.kff.org/...
One additional rather new phenomenon, a result of the escalating healthcare catastrophe was reported yesterday by the Los Angeles Times. Medical identity theft committed by people desperate for medical care.
After shoulder surgery last year, Lind Weaver was stunned when hospital bill collectors demanded that she pay for the amputation of her right foot.
. . .But the 56-year-old retired schoolteacher quickly discovered she was dealing with something more nefarious than a simple clerical error: An identity thief had obtained medical care under Weaver's name and had the bill sent to her insurer.
http://www.latimes.com/...
And may I leave you this morning with a very sad postscript? Some of you may remember Sara the patient who I was helping get Avastin from a very unwilling insurance company. Sara died several months ago, but the family remains plauged by inurance company nightmares. Here's a small piece of an email her doctor, my friend, recently received.
i am also responsible for figuring out her unpaid medical bills, and "EOB'S" from blue cross that make no sense whatsoever. they try to deny everything, not medically necessary, not preauthorized, out of network, not notified...etc. or they are "waiting for more information." one claim seems to have been processed twice, by different people, and was denied twice for different reasons. seems they throw a dart at a dartboard to determine which denial reason to use.
i've been talking to friends who have had blue cross (in California) try to deny claims - one person had an emergency appendectomy and they called it a "preexisting condition." and, one of the doctor's offices that i spoke with regarding my mom's account, said that blue cross/blue shield incorrectly denies 80% of the claims that go to their office.
does that seem shady to you???
Even after death, the survivors are savaged by insurance companies.
Isn't it long overdue to pull THEIR coverage until the American people have what elected officials--our employees--give themselves?