Maintaing the Health Care Status Quo is Not An Option--Reform is An Economic and Moral Imperative
posted by: Scott P. 72 days ago
Scott P
Not too long ago someone told me that "many people don't feel health care needs to be reformed" and while I accept that someone may have differences with how to reform health care I am incredulous that anyone would think the status quo is acceptable. As of this morning I read some valuable news which substantiates my belief.
Based on a survey of corporations throughout America, the Washington post reported today that "forty percent of employers surveyed said they are likely to increase the amount their workers pay out of pocket for doctor visits. Almost as many said they are likely to raise annual deductibles and the amount workers pay for prescription drugs." Moreover, 8 percent "plan to drop coverage entirely." That's 160 out of the 2,000 companies surveyed. How many people think those same companies will give their employees pay increases of say at least twenty percent of what they used to cover for employee health premiums to help them afford insurance on the private market. My guess is—zero. In effect, those people losing coverage or having premiums increase will be facing severe cuts in pay (most business calculate health premiums as part of an employee's payroll). For some reason employees probably just accept this even though if the cut came directly from their "salary" they would probably revolt.
But wait it gets worse…the Post reports that the expected cost according to a business lobby (not a health care reform advocacy group—a business lobby) will "rise 166 percent over the next decade—to $28, 530 per employee." That's more than half the average median income in the country. That means fifty percent of the country may face premiums equal to more than fifty percent of their income.
Now you may think, "well, eventually my wages will go up to compensate for the inflationary costs of insurance" to which I say wages have only grown thirty-eight percent in the last ten years while insurance premiums have increased by 131 percent which is almost five times the average rate of inflation (twenty-eight percent).
Perhaps the Kaiser Family Foundation puts can best put it into perspective. They state that the current average premium is $13, 375 and "to put that number in context, if you are an employer, you can hire an employee at the minimum wage for about $15,000 per year. If you are a consumer, you can rent an average two-bedroom apartment nationwide for $11,136 per year (though it is quite a bit more here in Menlo Park, California where our Foundation is based). You can also buy a new Chevy Aveo for $12,000, and it gets 35 miles per gallon on the highway." Now increase that amount to $28,530 or even worse $30,803 which is what the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates cost may be by 2019 (see photo at the top of this posting).
Granted, they got the high number by presuming a high health premium inflation rate of 8.7 percent but even when they calculated a conservative rate of 6.1 percent (the average for the last five years) they still came to $24, 180. Not much better. How many out there think health care inflation is expected to stay even let alone go down in the coming years? Not me. On the other hand, it is quite probable that we will, at the minimum, experience the 13 percent spikes we experienced in 2002 and 2003. After all, general inflation fell .7 percent this year but health premiums still continued their three-year trend of increasing by 5 percent.
As Antonio M. Perez, chief executive of Eastman Kodak and a leader of the Business Roundtable states in the Post article, "Maintaining the status quo is simply not an option...these costs are unsustainable and would put millions of workers at risk."
Now to the part where you need to take a little action:
Wendell Potter YouTube Video
In the above You Tube video, Wendell Potter, former Vice President of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the United States' largest health insurance companies warned Congress that if it "fails to create a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the president might as well be called the Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act."
To that point his address focuses on the Baucus bill which is about to leave the Senate Finance Committee without a public option.
Some key points Potter makes in the video:
· Baucus' Framework would actually drive millions more Americans, including many who currently have access to comprehensive coverage, into the ranks of the underinsured.
· An estimated 25 million Americans are now underinsured for two principle reasons. First, the high-deductible plans many of them have been forced into by their employers require them to pay more out of their own pockets for medical care, whether they can afford it or note. Second, more and more Americans have fallen victim to deceptive marketing practices and bought what essentially is fake insurance.
· The big insurers have spent millions of dollars acquiring companies that specialize in what they call "limited-benefit" plans. Not only are the benefits extremely limited, the underwriting criteria established by the insurers essentially guarantee big profits.
· The Baucus plan also would allow insurers to charge older people and families up to 7.5 times as much and younger people, impose big fines on families that don't buy their lousy insurance, and would weaken state regulation of insurers.
· Contrary to the misinformation being disseminated by the health insurance industry and its allies, the public insurance option would not have a competitive advantage over private plans. It would have to meet the same benefit requirements and comply with the same insurance market reforms as private plans.
· Over the past several weeks, I have repeatedly told audiences around the country that the public option should not just be an "option" to be bargained away at the behest of insurance companies who are pouring money into Congress to defeat substantial and essential reforms. A public option must be created to provide true choice to consumers or reform will fail to truly fix the root of the severe problems that have been caused in large part by the greedy demands of Wall Street.
· By creating a strong public option and restricting the insurance industry's ability to enrich executives and investors at the expense of taxpayers and consumers, H.R. 3200 will truly benefit average Americans.
· The Baucus plan, on the other hand, would create a government-subsidized monopoly for the purchase of bare-bones, high-deductible policies that would truly benefit Big Insurance. In other words, insurers would win; your constituents would lose.
The Baucus plan will mandate that you buy insurance without providing a public option. This will create a huge giveaway for the health care industry which will be happy to sell low quality insurance that will fail to truly provide the care that someone needs if they face a true health care calamity.
Support the public option by calling Congress and recording your call.
I also highly recommend readers to check out FactCheck.org because there is a lot of disinformation out there and this organization is a non-partisan group which does a great job of shifting through the rhetoric and hyperbole. Read their fact check of Obama's last health care speech or of the DNC add falsely accusing Republican's of voting want to "abolish" as oppsed to dramatically change Medicare if you do not believe they provide an honest vetting.
For past posts I wrote on health care go see:
Stop Socialized Medicine, Pledge to Refuse Medicare Coverage Now and Forever
It's Their Money vs. Your Health—Which Does Ben Nelson Support?
We Need Health Care Not Health Insurance—No More Profits Over People!
For more Care2 posts:
Baucus Gang of Six Beats Up on Average Joe
Has Baucus Pulled Snowe's Trigger?
Based on a survey of corporations throughout America, the Washington post reported today that "forty percent of employers surveyed said they are likely to increase the amount their workers pay out of pocket for doctor visits. Almost as many said they are likely to raise annual deductibles and the amount workers pay for prescription drugs." Moreover, 8 percent "plan to drop coverage entirely." That's 160 out of the 2,000 companies surveyed. How many people think those same companies will give their employees pay increases of say at least twenty percent of what they used to cover for employee health premiums to help them afford insurance on the private market. My guess is—zero. In effect, those people losing coverage or having premiums increase will be facing severe cuts in pay (most business calculate health premiums as part of an employee's payroll). For some reason employees probably just accept this even though if the cut came directly from their "salary" they would probably revolt.
But wait it gets worse…the Post reports that the expected cost according to a business lobby (not a health care reform advocacy group—a business lobby) will "rise 166 percent over the next decade—to $28, 530 per employee." That's more than half the average median income in the country. That means fifty percent of the country may face premiums equal to more than fifty percent of their income.
Now you may think, "well, eventually my wages will go up to compensate for the inflationary costs of insurance" to which I say wages have only grown thirty-eight percent in the last ten years while insurance premiums have increased by 131 percent which is almost five times the average rate of inflation (twenty-eight percent).
Perhaps the Kaiser Family Foundation puts can best put it into perspective. They state that the current average premium is $13, 375 and "to put that number in context, if you are an employer, you can hire an employee at the minimum wage for about $15,000 per year. If you are a consumer, you can rent an average two-bedroom apartment nationwide for $11,136 per year (though it is quite a bit more here in Menlo Park, California where our Foundation is based). You can also buy a new Chevy Aveo for $12,000, and it gets 35 miles per gallon on the highway." Now increase that amount to $28,530 or even worse $30,803 which is what the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates cost may be by 2019 (see photo at the top of this posting).
Granted, they got the high number by presuming a high health premium inflation rate of 8.7 percent but even when they calculated a conservative rate of 6.1 percent (the average for the last five years) they still came to $24, 180. Not much better. How many out there think health care inflation is expected to stay even let alone go down in the coming years? Not me. On the other hand, it is quite probable that we will, at the minimum, experience the 13 percent spikes we experienced in 2002 and 2003. After all, general inflation fell .7 percent this year but health premiums still continued their three-year trend of increasing by 5 percent.
As Antonio M. Perez, chief executive of Eastman Kodak and a leader of the Business Roundtable states in the Post article, "Maintaining the status quo is simply not an option...these costs are unsustainable and would put millions of workers at risk."
Now to the part where you need to take a little action:
Wendell Potter YouTube Video
In the above You Tube video, Wendell Potter, former Vice President of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the United States' largest health insurance companies warned Congress that if it "fails to create a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the president might as well be called the Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act."
To that point his address focuses on the Baucus bill which is about to leave the Senate Finance Committee without a public option.
Some key points Potter makes in the video:
· Baucus' Framework would actually drive millions more Americans, including many who currently have access to comprehensive coverage, into the ranks of the underinsured.
· An estimated 25 million Americans are now underinsured for two principle reasons. First, the high-deductible plans many of them have been forced into by their employers require them to pay more out of their own pockets for medical care, whether they can afford it or note. Second, more and more Americans have fallen victim to deceptive marketing practices and bought what essentially is fake insurance.
· The big insurers have spent millions of dollars acquiring companies that specialize in what they call "limited-benefit" plans. Not only are the benefits extremely limited, the underwriting criteria established by the insurers essentially guarantee big profits.
· The Baucus plan also would allow insurers to charge older people and families up to 7.5 times as much and younger people, impose big fines on families that don't buy their lousy insurance, and would weaken state regulation of insurers.
· Contrary to the misinformation being disseminated by the health insurance industry and its allies, the public insurance option would not have a competitive advantage over private plans. It would have to meet the same benefit requirements and comply with the same insurance market reforms as private plans.
· Over the past several weeks, I have repeatedly told audiences around the country that the public option should not just be an "option" to be bargained away at the behest of insurance companies who are pouring money into Congress to defeat substantial and essential reforms. A public option must be created to provide true choice to consumers or reform will fail to truly fix the root of the severe problems that have been caused in large part by the greedy demands of Wall Street.
· By creating a strong public option and restricting the insurance industry's ability to enrich executives and investors at the expense of taxpayers and consumers, H.R. 3200 will truly benefit average Americans.
· The Baucus plan, on the other hand, would create a government-subsidized monopoly for the purchase of bare-bones, high-deductible policies that would truly benefit Big Insurance. In other words, insurers would win; your constituents would lose.
The Baucus plan will mandate that you buy insurance without providing a public option. This will create a huge giveaway for the health care industry which will be happy to sell low quality insurance that will fail to truly provide the care that someone needs if they face a true health care calamity.
Support the public option by calling Congress and recording your call.
I also highly recommend readers to check out FactCheck.org because there is a lot of disinformation out there and this organization is a non-partisan group which does a great job of shifting through the rhetoric and hyperbole. Read their fact check of Obama's last health care speech or of the DNC add falsely accusing Republican's of voting want to "abolish" as oppsed to dramatically change Medicare if you do not believe they provide an honest vetting.
For past posts I wrote on health care go see:
Stop Socialized Medicine, Pledge to Refuse Medicare Coverage Now and Forever
It's Their Money vs. Your Health—Which Does Ben Nelson Support?
We Need Health Care Not Health Insurance—No More Profits Over People!
For more Care2 posts:
Baucus Gang of Six Beats Up on Average Joe
Has Baucus Pulled Snowe's Trigger?
Read more: politics
comments
Chief Wiggum: Fat Tony is a cancer on this fair city! He is the cancer and I am the…uh…what cures cancer?
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Carolyn,
I think Scott got his 5% number from think link to the Kasier Family Foundation in his blog. I am guessing that 5% is the average because maybe some really large mega companies were able to maintain lower insurance premiums while a small company such as your is getting screwed.
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scott,
where did you get the "health premiums still continued their three-year trend of increasing by 5 percent" figure? i run a small business and provide health insurance for participating employees and our premiums have never gone up a mere 5% in a year! that would be heaven!
instead they go up 10 or 12% a year, forcing me to seek out lesser policies just to stay in place. in october, my premiums are set to go up 20%!!!!! and again, i'm in the process of trying to downgrade the policy.
i hate insurance so much i can't express it! i am actually more crabby in september than i am in december when my corporate taxes are due. i wish i had never started with insurance. it is crippling and yes, i can't ever afford to give my people raises because of the damned insurance.
and yet they talk about getting insurance companies to hold their increases! who is naive enough to believe that?
i am seriously considering early retirement to some european nation with single payer health insurance
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P H is right on! We need a whole new model.
Currently, we have a system based on profit and controlled by the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical companies. What is needed is a system based on care provision with the intention of providing us with a healthy populace. We will only get this with the understanding that we are not covered unless we are all covered. If we leave some out of the equation, we are destined to have the job of rescuing them at a later time, which will always cost more that if we had taken care of them in the first place.
We need to start with the people providing the care and work it out from there, rather than starting with insurers and pharmaceutical companies. If we allow alternative kinds of medical practice and employ them as a regular practice, we would all be healthier and the whole medical system would cost less overall.
I don't have insurance and even if I did, it wouldn't cover half of what I spend on my health. I recently had a bout with cancer and beat it by going to Ecuador and getting a treatment that is illegal in this country. Insurance would not have helped me! Fortunately, I had the finances to cover the cost of the trip and the clinic which came to roughly the equivilant of 2 radiation therapy treatments or about $60,000. The treatment I got was essential oil iv therapy; Illegal in the US. It cured me in 10 weeks!
I just had my first blood test since coming back to the US. The results are as they were in Ecuador; no cancer!
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I find the ads on Tv from pharmaceuticals is now on depression. Yea we Americans are depressed because of you. Get off of TV, it really is in bad taste. Lets get rid of the insurance companies also. We need health care not insurance care. Lets wake up America. If this is what capitalization is we are in big trouble. Our politicians lie to us and we should not support them. We need a single payer plan or a public option and the heck with the insurance companies. If we can afford the wars we certainly can afford health care. We will always be in debt so forget your grandchildren, that is just an excuse. Don't listen to the brainwashing of your party. This is our country.
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The one thing people cannot see in this fight over health care reform is that its going to be the cover for microchipping the population and to assist in population control. just review the old Charlton Heston movie called Soylent Green where the banksters bragged about what they would do to people in the future this future is happening now.
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It always drives me crazy when people talk of keeping health care costs down by turning to the industry itself. These two facts negate any discussion. First, health insurance rates rise at the same time as health insurance companies' obscene profits.
Second, if the insurance companies are always so worried about the bottom line; where do they find the millions, probably billions, to bribe politicians and officials?
The plain and simple fact is that anybody who opposes single payer health care is a consumate sphincter and should be denied any proctological care in thierm lifetimes!
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Scott - right on!
I for one will NOT buy MANDATORY health insurance that gives me no health care at all - they can lock me up if they wish. It will be my form of protest.
I'm afraid that no amount of pressure on Congress is going to make a difference. They know they can do whatever the heck they please - because right from the rigged election process to the lack of accountability to us - we're screwed.
We have been legislated into oblivion and nothing short of a revolt is going to give us back our constitutional rights and a decent way of life in this country.
The American "empire" is crumbling - they know it - and like the Roman emperor Nero, they are fiddling as much as they possibly can before it burns to the ground. For "fiddling" - read ROBBING US!
They have the system in place and the means to have a public option up and running literally TOMORROW! Medicare is a public option - presently only for the over 65's and special cases. How much would you pay to have Medicare coverage? I think I would be willing to pay the same premium I'm paying right now - because Medicare would give me far better coverage.
In other words - all they have to do is open Medicare to all - but those under 65 have to pay a premium until they reach 65.
But they won't - because those poor insurance companies will suffer soooo bad!
Welcome to the revolution!
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Dennis Kucinich is exactly correct. The US Government protected and rewarded the same people that have created the Economic Crash. Health Care is the next plum for them to pick. Some people are so desperate for anything, that they are not paying attention to what is being done. Ineke D: Thanks for his quote.
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Which Public Option are we talking about?
-The one that mandates Americans to buy insurance from the same companies who have denied us care and who have enriched themselves enormously from people's misery and death, and undoubtedly will try, and succeed, to continue to do so? The same companies whose stocks went up after Obama's speech.
-The one that will increase health care costs by 1 trillion over the next 10 years?
-The one that will leave millions of people uninsured?
-The one that will go into effect somewhere around 2019?
From Dennis Kucinich:
"The President opened his speech speaking of how we have solved the economic crisis - how? By rewarding those who caused the crash! Is this the way we solve the health care crisis? Rewarding the insurance companies? Helping insurance and pharmaceutical stock to soar, propping up markets while skimping on health care? The very same system which caused the health care crisis is being rewarded with the guarantee of tens of millions of new customers mandated - by law - to have health care. The latest plan rewards the very companies that have denied treatment, denied care, denied drug coverage while their profits grow daily.
The "public option" has been relegated to insignificance. What we will now get is yet another "private option", not a public option, because single-payer is "off the table." We the people deserve better. We have been faced with general warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan - multi-trillion d
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