Thursday, 23 September 2010
In General the Assessment is Generally General
 Check out this article from the Denver Post. This time the NAIC and the feds got it right. Stop with the carrier whining! Stop with the sound bites! Demand numbers to back up these ridiculous assertions that these basic reforms are going to cost billions. Say it ain't so. Well, it ain't. According to a 2009 Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured 30% of the 45.7 million uninsured at that time were between the ages of 19 and 29 or 13,710,000 individuals. I cannot find the claims data nationally on this age group but I can tell you that on the groups we work with it is very low. Using the minor changes just moving into law today, September 23, 2010, does not and cannot justify the kind of increase being asked by insurance companies. This only adds credibility to the wrongful assertion that insurance companies are the sole reason for our crisis. The other side of the coin is that politicians are taking credit for saving the world by inserting these cosmetic changes into the reform bill.
So both sides win by sound bite. Insurance companies try to increase their cash flow because the changes are mandated and the politicians try to use the changes as fodder for their failing political campaigns. I am getting sick again. Come on people. The truth is, we needed to make these changes but they are not like discovering another planet filled with people like us. They should not cause rate increases and they are not going to lower the cost of healthcare.
Here is some earth shattering news however. Consider these images knowing that the real reason for our healthcare cost crisis is our degenerative lifestyle:
Millions of Americans have health problems caused by smoking. Cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke cause an estimated average of 438,000 premature deaths each year in the United States. Of these premature deaths, about 40 percent are from cancer, 35 percent are from heart disease and stroke, and 25 percent are from lung disease. Smoking is the leading cause of premature, preventable death in this country.
Quitting smoking reduces the risk of cancer and other diseases, such as heart disease and lung disease, caused by smoking. People who quit smoking, regardless of their age, are less likely than those who continue to smoke to die from smoking-related illness. Studies have shown that quitting at about age 30 reduces the chance of dying from smoking-related diseases by more than 90 percent. People who quit at about age 50 reduce their risk of dying prematurely by 50 percent compared with those who continue to smoke. Even people who quit at about age 60 or older live longer than those who continue to smoke.
Perhaps adult children ages 19 to their 26th birthday could only stay on if they were non-smokers.
Mike Huckabee lost 120 pounds during his preparation for a presidential bid.
It is now known that obesity is not just an ordinary problem but a serious health hazard. Obesity raises the risks of a number of grave medical conditions such as heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease and gallstones, osteoarthritis, gout, and breathing problems like sleep apnea and asthma.
If we are to fix this problem those who design it must be an example. They must also appoint and nominate people who are dedicated to changing our view of responsible spending on healthcare. That combined with an equal look under the covers of the provider industry might just yield some astounding results. Posted on 09/23/2010 3:53 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
I guess you have to work there
Well, the man who is currently employed as the head of Medicare and Medicaid Services, Donald Berwick, in an article in the Washington Post, says that the former person employed to run Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, doesn't know what he is talking about. So, the guy who has a job wants to keep it and the guy without one apparently doesn't care what anyone thinks about what he thinks. It will be interesting to hear what Donald Berwick has to say when he is unemployed. Now, what about the reality of the issue? They have managed to, in theory, elongate the life of Medicare by a few years and supposedly save quadrillions of dollars. Not really quadrillions, I am just dying to use the next number after Trillion. The question has nothing to do with making Medicare last longer, or that it will reduce the federal deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years, and one trillion over the following decade. The question is where did the rabbit go? What is being cut that will allow this to happen? You can't get a trillion dollars of savings from efficiency and fraud.
The truth is that it will come off the backs of seniors who will get their benefits cut and the providers that treat them will be paid significantly less. That will lead to rationing of healthcare to our seniors and eventually to all of us. There are a significant number of doctors who have already stopped treating Medicare patients and that number is and will rise. The government has cried "wolf" one too many times about cutting fees or not cutting fees and the providers are ready to pull the plug. Here is the news flash-Medicare, in the 21st century will never work as designed in July of 1965. We were lied to then to get it passed and we are being placated today into believing that senior socialism is not only acceptable in a significantly capitalistic society, but that it will work! Note that the term "senior socialism" is not a twisted metaphor, that's what the term social security implies. Medicare is the perfect socialistic model. Everyone gets the same care, but those who have more will pay more for it, and actually under the current system will pay for most all of it. Medicare, in its early 20th century form plays very well into the class warfare being promulgated by Congress and the Administration. Truth is, "and let me be very clear," the only way to make this work is for Medicare to become private, over a period of time, allowing those who want to stay in the current system to do so after a cut off date. Yes, adult children will have to take a more active role in the care of their parents. That was one of the promoted positions that helped pass Medicare and Medicaid in July of 1965. The average person of that day saw an opportunity for the government to take the worry and hassle of elder care off their backs. Well, how is that working for you now?
In the end, many of the healthcare issues we face are all centered on a small group of painful ideas. Some pundits have labeled them; class warfare, socialism, rationing, no responsibility for Americans to take care of themselves, free, free, free everything, an obese nation, unrealistic expectations, and a few others. Some of these labels are overblown and misinformed, but even so, is it any more correct to ignore the obvious? Let me sum up the solution; take care to receive care, allow capitalism to work without burdensome-bureaucratic interference, except that nothing is free-nothing, allow the government to do what it does best-protect us from people who wish to hurt and destroy us, and understand that social security, while a solution in another era, has outlived its original swollen promises.
Posted on 09/15/2010 5:43 PM by Bob Shupe
|
