Tag: Health Reform

Another “Up” Side To Health Reform

We have all heard the argument for health reform….more insured people…healthier people….cheaper insurance….on and on….and yes we have all definitely heard the supposed downside if there is reform coming from the GOP mostly.

But with all said could there possibly be other benefits if health reform is passed?

Liz Wolgemuth writing for U.S. News And World Report:

If healthcare reform makes insurance much more affordable to individuals and businesses, it could result in a greater variety of career options for workers. For one thing, it would reduce barriers to entrepreneurship. Reform also could make it easier for workers to leave employers to whom they are “job-locked,” or committed to solely for health benefits–a situation more common to older workers and those with pre-existing conditions.

It also could ease one of the greatest obstacles to older workers’ job searches–even more pressing after nearly two years of recession and rocketing unemployment rates. “One of the long-standing barriers to hiring elderly workers is healthcare costs,” says David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Because rates are higher for smaller employers, “if that concern were taken off the table,” it would be easier for more businesses to hire older workers,

This would, in general, be a good thing for the economy. Workers who choose to stay with employers merely to receive health insurance are not ideal for employers, who benefit more from motivated and productive workers. At the same time, workers are not helped by staying in jobs so they can maintain their coverage. There is what Lahey describes as a “loss of well-being” when, say, an older worker is ailing but continues to work until he or she reaches 65 and can be covered by Medicare. Yet many workers, particularly low-income ones, feel that’s what they have to do.

Could there possibly be any disadvantage?  There is ALWAYS going to be a disadvantage to any government reform.

Small businesses pay as much as 18 percent more than large firms for the same health insurance policy, according to the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Employees at small businesses also tend to get leaner benefits packages and pay higher deductibles. “Small firms are likely to be at a competitive disadvantage in the market for hiring workers,” according to the council’s report. While Obama’s goal may be competitive parity, opponents to existing healthcare reform legislation have argued that payroll taxes to pay for more affordable healthcare or mandates for levels of coverage could be prohibitive for small businesses.

There you have a few good versus bad of any health reform…weigh that as you struggle to make any sense of the noise coming out of Washington during the health debate.

Why Not Ration Health Care?

There are many plans and many counter plans to the health care reform.  I have posted on many of them from Obama himself to the vague plans of the GOP.  But I recently read about a  plan that disturbs me and it comes from a Dem, the brother of Rahm to be exact.  I learned about it from reading an article written by Kate Randall.

Under this plan, every citizen would receive a “health care certificate.” This health care coverage would be portable and permanent, would not be dependent upon employment status or pre-existing conditions and would provide an unspecified range of basic benefits.

The plan would be financed through a dedicated 10 percent Value Added Tax, or VAT, on purchases and services. Emanuel claims such a tax is egalitarian. VAT is, in fact, a highly regressive form of taxation, disproportionately effecting lower-income people. Health care expenditures would be capped according to the amount of revenue raised by the VAT, unless Congress authorized an increase in the VAT rate.

Emanuel also calls for an outright end to employer-based health care provision, which would eliminate any responsibility for businesses to provide medical insurance for their employees. Among unionized workers, health care coverage was won in the course of decades of bitter struggle. Emanuel proposes to scrap these benefits and replace them with his universal plan, providing “standard benefits” across the board.

Under Emanuel’s plan, while everyone will have the same “standard” plan, the wealthy would be able to purchase additional care. He justifies this with the following: “We are used to being able to spend our money on what we want. If we want a fancier car, a smaller, faster computer with more memory, or a luxury vacation, we can pay the extra cost for such things and skimp somewhere else if necessary. The key is that it is our decision.” [10]

He calls this the “choice” aspect of his plan. Needless to say, such freedom to choose is not available to the vast majority of working class families, the unemployed and the poor. In fact, under Obama’s plan, a significant portion of the population will likely choose to pay the penalty for being uninsured—at an estimated average of upwards of $1,000—rather than pay the premiums charged by the private insurance companies, because they cannot afford them.

One of the most insidious features of Emanuel’s plan is the proposal to scrap Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). He writes: “Current enrollees will have the option of joining the Guaranteed Healthcare Access Plan. Over a period of about fifteen years, these programs will be phased out.”   His vision of universal health care therefore eliminates the only government administered health care programs.

Emanuel claims that the adoption of an insurance exchange where private insurers offer coverage for purchase—another proposal adopted by Obama—“sets the stage for free enterprise to deliver on its promise that competition will drive quality up while driving prices down.” [13] While private insurers would be required to accept anyone who purchases coverage, there would be no statutory limits on the prices charged for these premiums. Emanuel opposes offering the fig leaf of a “public option” as part of the exchange.

The more I hear of Obama’s ideas and those of his advisors, the more I am starting to believe that all the “public option” stuff was just smoke blown up a gullible public’s ass.  That there was NO intention of a true public option ever considered.

Also the more I hear comning out of Congress the more that only a health plan that is approved by the insurance industry will be passed.  And if that is so, the uninsured are SCREWED!

There Is Always A Health Plan

I have written about several health plans that others are suggesting would make health costs more affordable.  This one is from the CEO of Whole Foods, Inc:

Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems.

Equalize the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.

• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.

• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.

• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor’s visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?

• Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.

• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Mr. Mackey has a plan and according to him the plan that he uses for his employees is very satisfying and good way to travel.  My problem with his plan is that it sounds a lot like the plan the the GOP came up with, then abandoned and the same plan as that of Dr. Arthur Laffer, the conservative’s favorite economist, the father of the Laffer Curve theory.

read over his plan and see if that the tort reform, the HSAs, the tax cuts and the forecast of Medicare’s failure in the near future does not sound familiar.  It should…it is Republican all the way.  His biggest asrgument is that health care is a service not a right.


Why Not Take The Profit Out Of Health Care?

In the list of world countries and their health care systems, the US ranks 37, France and Italy are one and two.  The Repubs keep telling us that we have the best health care system in the world, but I believe that is not quite as honest as they want us to believe.

From an article on wsws.org:

Americans are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the state of the nation’s health care system. A New York Times/CBS news poll released over the weekend showed that 85 percent of respondents said that the health care system needed to be fundamentally changed or rebuilt.

The survey also found that 72 percent would support a government-administered insurance plan, and that half of those questioned thought the government would do a better job than private insurers at providing medical coverage.

The reality, however, is that health care reform being promoted by the Obama administration, and being drafted and debated in the House and Senate, will not address the burning health care needs of millions of adults and children. The entire debate in the White House and Congress is framed from the standpoint of cutting costs, rationing care and defending the profits of the giant health care conglomerates.

Various versions of the “public option” are being advanced. None of these options bear any resemblance to socialized medicine, and they would in no way challenge the private, for-profit operation of the healthcare system.

One would be based on a Medicare-style model, competing with private alternatives in a national insurance “exchange,” open to people without workplace coverage. Another is a “weak public option,” which would be organized at the state level, and would operate somewhat like self-insured state employee plans. Yet another would allow for government-chartered but privately run insurance “cooperatives.”

The outcome of Obama’s reforms will be, in the end, that the majority of Americans will have less health care than they do at present. Indeed, the state government of California, with the full support of the Obama administration, is already planning the elimination of key social programs, including subsidized health care to hundreds of thousands of children.

In a society ever more polarized and dominated by a financial aristocracy—and with a president who functions as its instrument—no expense is to be spared to bail out the banks and financial institutions, while a “reform” of the health care system is to be accompanied by healthcare rationing and massive spending cuts.

I say turn health care into a “public utility” and remove the profit structure.