By Jane M. Von Bergen 10/25/2009
Inquirer Staff Writer
Insurance companies are uniformly opposed to the government insurance public option, but they are not the only ones lining up against what has become a lightning rod in the debate around the health-care overhaul in Washington.
The insurers are being joined by the nation’s largest employers, companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.
Companies fighting changes like insurers | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/25/2009
By REED ABELSON October 24, 2009
As Congress nears votes on legislation that would overhaul the health care system, many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in insurance premiums they have seen in recent years.
Insurance brokers and benefits consultants say their small business clients are seeing premiums go up an average of about 15 percent for the coming year — double the rate of last year’s increases. That would mean an annual premium that was $4,500 per employee in 2008 and $4,800 this year would rise to $5,500 in 2010.
Small Business Faces Sharp Rise in Costs of Health Care – NYTimes.com
by Dr. Robert M. McLean, an internist in New Haven
It is not surprising that many Americans are confused about the details and goals of health reform when there has been so much noise and misinformation spread all summer.
Those of us who work daily in the health care arena see myriad inefficiencies and daily examples of over-utilization in the current dysfunctional system. There may already be enough money to provide adequate care to most Americans if that money were only spent better.
By Steve Early & Rand Wilson October 21, 2009
Twenty years ago, 60,000 workers from New York City to Maine rallied against healthcare cost-shifting at the telecom giant then known as NYNEX (since “rebranded” as Verizon).
NYNEX was a very profitable, multinational company seeking to capitalize on a demoralizing decade of lost strikes, contract givebacks and widespread union-busting. At a time when many workers were forced to make concessions, NYNEX strikers held the line for four months and emerged victorious. They successfully resisted the company’s demand that they pay hundreds and eventually thousands of dollars a year for medical benefits. But this singular union win didn’t come cheap. Customer service was disrupted by the work stoppage, resulting in tens of millions of dollars worth of lost wages. Hundreds of strikers were arrested, fired or suspended–and one, Gerry Horgan, was killed on a picket line in Westchester County.
How often have you heard the phrase, “The United States has the best health care system in the world.”?
What is wrong with that statement is the word “system”.
We could rephrase it – The United States can deliver some of the best health care services in the world (to those who can pay for it).
We could even argue – The United States has some of the best health care systems in the world: the Mayo Clinic, the Veteran’s Administration, the Department of Defense.
But to assert that we have a system or that Americans (all Americans) receive the best care in the world is a stretch. Why?
Over the last two weeks I wrote about our fragmented health care system and the closely related fragmented payment system.
I wrote about how patients are equally fragmented, migrating during their lives through several health plans, what I call patient delivery systems.
In most measures of health system performance the United States ranks embarrassingly near the bottom or at the bottom among industrialized countries. From 2000 to 2009 male life expectancy fell six slots to 24th in the world and female life expectancy fell from 28th to 35th. Some would counter that life style, diet, or poverty had more influence on those drops than health care.
Isn’t that fragmented thinking? If we had a health care “system” then it would take comprehensive approach to population health.
What are the incentives for doctors and hospitals? Just as sunflowers follow the sun, health care providers, like the rest of us, follow the money. And the money is paid for doing stuff, surgeries and tests, for example. It is not paid for talking with or listening to patients, giving them lifestyle or treatment compliance assistance.
Patients often lack the freedom to choose just any doctor. Their incentive is to change doctors to conform with their current health plan rules. Continue reading ‘Fragmentation, Quality and Health Care Reform’
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