[Vision2020] Do You Want Wall Street to Control Your Health Care?

[bear at moscow.com]

Nick,

A novel thought. IF the present health care policy that the Congressmen
and Senators are under is good enough for them, why can't we all have that
same health care program?



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> Greetings:
> This is my contribution to the health care reform debate and will be my
> radio commentary/column for this week.
> The full version is attached as a PDF file is attached.
> Will the GOP and medical insurance lobbyists destroy our chances once
> again?
>
> Nick Gier
>
> DO YOU WANT WALL STREET TO CONTROL YOUR HEALTH CARE?
>
> Private medical insurance companies, driven by a need to satisfy their
> investors, now take profits and management expenses that run between 17-30
> percent of premiums, while Medicare's overhead is estimated at 2-6
> percent. Medicare Advantage plans, heavily subsidized private policies
> designed to substitute for Medicare, take an average 13 percent in
> administrative fees. They have not managed care nor have they reduced
> costs.
>
> A good portion of administrative costs for private insurance go to bloated
> CEO salaries, the 2008 median of which was $12.5 million per year. The
> median salary for CEOs in technology, oil and gas, and financials was in
> the $8 million range.
>
> Wendell Potter worked as a senior executive for several health insurance
> companies, and he recently gave testimony before a Senate committee. He
> maintained that medical insurance companies are one of the main reasons
> why our health care system is "both the most expensive and one of the most
> dysfunctional in the world."
>
> Potter explained how Wall Street investors rates companies higher if they
> turn premiums to profits rather than payments to patients.  As Potter
> states: "To help meet Wall Street's relentless profit expectations,
> insurers routinely dump policyholders who are less profitable or who get
> sick."
>
> At a recent hearing before a House committee, insurance executives refused
> to end the practice of canceling the policies of those who have become
> ill.  Potter reported that three major insurers had "cancelled the
> coverage of roughly 20,000 people in a five-year period, allowing the
> companies to avoid paying $300 million in claims."
>
> Employees at small businesses have been especially hit hard by
> cancellations or increases in premiums that no one can afford. The Small
> Business Administration reports that since 1993 the number of small
> businesses that cover their employee' medical bills has decreased from 61
> to 38 percent.
>
> In his testimony Potter related the story of Aetna's reorganization in the
> early 2000s.  New computer systems allowed Aetna to better identify risky
> policy holders, and since then about 8 million Americans have lost their
> medical coverage with the company.
>
> Potter predicts that consumer-driven plans, favored by Republicans and
> which "cherry-pick the youngest, healthiest and richest customers," will
> force "managed care plans to charge more to cover the sickest patients."
>
> Private insurers play a large role in the universal coverage enjoyed in
> Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Japan.  In Germany private
> insurers are not allowed to take a profit, and premiums can rise only at
> the rate of increase of medical costs.  No one is denied coverage in these
> systems and all them cost about half of what Americans pay per capita.
>
> In Japan there are more private hospitals than in the U.S. and most
> doctors run their own businesses.  Every Japanese is required to have
> non-profit medical insurance and the government pays the premiums of the
> poor.  Average premiums for everyone else are $280 per month per family
> and in most instances companies pick up half the cost.
>
> The U.S. should have gone to a single payer system decades ago, but the
> power of the private insurers is so great that this is no longer feasible.
>  The solution is a public insurance option such as Senate Bill 1278, which
> would set the standard for comprehensive, accessible coverage; and Senate
> Bill 1050, which would "improve transparency and accountability" in
> private health insurance markets.
>
> Basic health care coverage should not be a commodity but a basic right for
> each and every American.  Our medical futures should not be bought and
> sold on the stock market.  Just as we could have better government if we
> removed private money from political campaigns, so could we have better
> health care if medical insurers took care of patients' basic needs rather
> than looking at Wall Street's bottom line.
>
> Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
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