We Sure Swallowed the Health Care Lie
Maybe the Health Care issue affects me more because I’m self-employed and have been for the last twenty years. We do tend to get more worked-up over things that impact us directly, don’t we? I don’t really know who reads this blog, but I suspect that many of us are in the same boat. Writers, salespeople, and small business owners have all felt the crunch of rising health care costs.
Health Care Without the Care.
Let me tell you a story. Years ago, I worked as a life and health insurance salesman. I was sent to a week-long seminar in Denver, Colorado. At the training was a speaker. I don’t remember his name, but I can say he was an engaging executive type fellow and the story he related stuck with me to this day.
It seems that when he was much younger he was just an average guy working at an average full-time job. One day a favorite cousin came by to visit him. The cousin had taken a position selling a new product called health insurance. The speaker said that he laughed out loud and told his relative that it was the most ridiculous idea he had ever heard. After all, hospitals at that time were primarily community facilities and often run by religions or other charitable organizations. A hospital bed ran around 10 dollars a day. No patient was ever turned away, and doctors would accept terms, trade, or dismiss debt entirely if the patient couldn’t pay.
As much as the speaker tried to persuade his cousin, he held firm. So, he decided to prove his relative wrong by conducting an impromptu survey. He got a clipboard, a pen, and some paper and started ringing doorbells. When the door was answered he would lead with the worst opening ever conceived, “You wouldn’t be interested in buying health insurance, would you?”
“No” was the answer he received door-after-door-after-door.
Just when almost satisfied that he had collected enough no’s to make his cousin see the light, he got a “Yes.” The people invited him in and asked him to tell them more. Of course, he wasn’t knowledgeable about the product, so he phoned his cousin and invited him over. Together they wrapped up a nice sale. Then the new policy holder said to his wife, “We have friends and neighbors who should hear about this.”
So they invited other people over. Before long, they earned more in commissions than the speaker earned in a month of full-time work. He was so excited, he quit his job the next day and became an agent.
Health Insurance Took the Care Out of Health Care
It was a compelling story and got the crowd of insurance agents wound up and ready go out and sell, sell, sell, but the enthusiasm of the speech is not what I want to convey. Let’s take a look back at some of the facts: $10.00 per day hospital beds, charity run hospitals, no one turned away, and doctors more interested in treating patients than in paying their country club dues.
Follow the Money–Who Really Benefits from Health Insurance?
Think about it, since the inception of health insurance who has benefited? The patients? No. Health insurance has made it possible for a one day hospital stay to rack up thousands of dollars. It created the 1 dollar aspirin and the $2,000.00 per dose medicine. It has made Doctors wealthy. It has made health insurance executives millionaires. But it hasn’t done anything for policy holders except drain our wallets and gets us to believe the big lie that we have the finest health care in the world. Ha–that’s a laugh.
Who runs health care now? CORPORATIONS. It is no longer about the patient it is about the profit. Hey, that would be a good slogan for them, “Profit Over Patients.” How do they make those profits? They make them by denying claims. They aren’t really in the health care business they are in the claim denial business. One has to wonder, if they are so good at the art of minimizing their risk, and they are, why does your insurance go up 20% or more every year? Can you say Corporate greed? The Lund Report said that the CEO of the Oregon Blue Cross/Blue Shield in 2008 was the highest paid insurance executive in the state taking home nearly a million dollars. “So what did Regence do that resulted in its leaders being rewarded so well? If you take a look at the company’s performance last year, it’s hard to find the merit. Not only did the state’s largest insurer lose 32 percent (334,228) of its members, bringing its enrollment down to its lowest level in five years (776,647), Regence’s profit margin barely reached 1 percent. However, the company collected more in premiums than during the previous year.” Where did the increases come from? Duh, from raising premiums on the policyholders.
They’ve Got Us Over a Barrel.
Doesn’t this sound suspiciously like the greedy Wall Street titans? They take theirs, and then some, while everyone else suffers. If health insurance executives want more money they raise premiums, after all, what can you do? If you have been sick while under their plan, you now have a preexisting condition. No other insurance company will cover you. And if you drop your current coverage because it is too expensive, they will never take you back. Talk about having us over a barrel. We are screwed. As long as health care in America continues business as usual, we will be paying twice as much per person as any another other country in the world. But do we have the best health care in the world? NO! According to W.H.O., we rank No. 37. We are 37th and we pay more than anyone. Double in many cases.
How Stupid Are We, Paying Double for Half the Benefits?
Let’s stand behind the president and give the public option a chance. Private industry has had its chance and unless you’ve got your head buried in the sand, you’ll agree that it has been a failure on a massive scale.
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Tags: 38th in the World, Agent, Blog, Business as Usual, CEO, charitable institutions, Claim Denial Business, community facilities, Corporate Greed, Corporations, Country Club Membership, Debt, Doctors, Door-to-Door Survey, Double the Cost, Down Enrollment, Failed on a Massive Scale, Give the President a Chance, Health Care issue, Hospital Bed Cost, hospitals, Insurance Executive Millionaires, Leaders Rewarded, life and health insurance, Medicine, Merit, Minimizing Risk, Oregon Blue Cross / Blue Sheild, Over a Barrel, Policy Holders, Preexisting Conditions, Premiums Up, President, Private Industry, Profit Margin 1%, Profits, Profits Over Patients, Regence, religious organizations, Rising Health Care Costs, Salespeople, self-employed, Small Business Owners, The Best Health Care in the World, The Lund Report, We are Screwed, Wealthy Doctors, Writers
Bill, I agree that the problem with health care is that the relationship between the provider and the patient has been lost. Whenever I have had to pay directly for services I have been much more sensitive to costs and to only doing the procedures that I really need and can afford. As long as the insurance company is footing the bill, I don’t care about the expense.
If the government is paying the bill, how does that solve the problem? It is trading one master for an even worse one–one who has the intoxicating power of taxation. The Fed have totally botched our retirements with Social Security. What makes anybody think they can manage our health care?
When I listened to the President’s speech before the joint session of congress, I heard him say that the Public Option would cover only about 5% of Americans. That leaves more than the lion’s share for the current health care system. Part of the reason we need the public option is to provide competition with the for-profit guys. It also establishes a baseline of cost through real world experience. I’m pretty sure we are all being overcharged, but how do we prove it? Comparison will provide the proof.
Furthermore, the government has been running health care programs for many, many years. Medicare, VA Hospitals, and government employee insurance are all examples of their ability to manage health care. I personally don’t have any experience with the VA, but I do have a close relationship with three octogenarians who get treated by Medicare. I am happy with the job Medicare does and I look forward to the day when I qualify to get it.
As for Social Security, I too share your fears that it will collapse. Maybe it will, and maybe it won’t, but a few tweaks like means testing might go a long way to saving it for the truly needy. For those who don’t need it, like those in prison–too bad, you are getting housing and food paid by taxpayers, we owe you nothing more. When you get released you’ll start receiving it. As for the wealthy, what is the pittance of Social Security really doing for you? This country provided the means and the opportunity for you to gain riches and now that you have them should you drink out of the public trough too? It’s a little unfair, I know, but if I didn’t need Social Security I would gladly give it up.
Dan and Bill–
I recommend that you get your hands on an Atlantic Magazine article (September 2009 issue) called “How American Health Care Killed My Father“. The author, David Goldhill, maps a very intriguing way forward. His solution(s) are probably not politically possible but they certainly merit consideration and discussion as a way to re-introduce the patient back into a free-market system that now mostly excludes them.
Bruce, thanks. I’ll take a look at that article.
Bill, it’s the cost of healthcare that is at the heart of the debate in this country. Looking strictly at cost, let’s look at what the government has given us so far. A self-employeed person making a little over $100,000 a year will pay over $3,000 a year to Medicare, with no cap and no personal benefit to him. The same person will pay over $13,000 to Social Security. His return on that investment will be minimal, even with the best scenerio.
It’s easy to get warm and fuzzy about how our government is taking care of us, but at what cost? At least with private insurance you have options. Once the government takes over with its power to tax, there is no way to opt out short of going to prison.
Doctors, healthcare providers, and insurance companies are businesses. To suggest they shouldn’t earn profits is ludicrous. That said, is health insurance too expensive? I don’t see how anyone could say otherwise. But the solution is hardly Obamacare. Obama’s solution won’t get rid of doctors or hospitals that simply give bad service. It won’t rid us of freeloaders or illegals who want something for nothing. It won’t rid us of abusers of the system who always run to the hospital for every hangnail. It won’t prevent rationing (and anyone who thinks rationing isn’t part of socialist healthcare shcemes ought to go live in another country. Sure, one can always find personal horror stories about someone’s experience with a hospital or insurance company here. Likewise, one can always find someone with a positive testimony about their experience with socialized healthcare abroad. But isolated anecdotes don’t give us the big picture, nor do they identify the problems. Polemics about “corporate greed” are political slogans that offer no real arguments and no real solutions. If healthcare reform is to really occur, things like ambulance-chasing lawyers and the greedy, litigious patients that think they have won the lottery because of some bad experience they have suffered must be dealt with. Freeloaders who receive care without paying need to be eliminated. Health insurance needs to function like car insurance. You pay for the ordinary things, and only expensive emergencies are covered. Finally, fair-market pricing needs to be established to rid the practice of charging five-dollars for aspirin and other such ridiculous gouging.
But Obamacare won’t address these issues. All it will do is exchange “corporate greed” for leftist, big-government greed. That’s hardly a healthcare solution.
Bill,
I agree with you about residents in America being taken to the cleaners wrt health insurance. I know, I lived there for ten years until this spring. Now, the only reason why there is talk about reform is that other big corporations have realized they are paying a lot for health care and wish to get someone else to cover part of it:) They want to avoid the missteps of the big three.
The government has no responsibility or duty to take care of anyone. We need to ask congress to stop spending money not asking them for new ways to go broke and new ways to take our money. Congress and the administration only want the public option because that will funnel billions of more dollars into the “public trough” as Bill calls it. It will all become part of the federal budget. It won’t be locked for health care or insurance. It all becomes part of the power that Washington wants to accumulate.
The answer to this problem is for all of us to eat right, exercise, and take responsibility for our own lives.
Larry
Larry, you and Paco seemed to miss the point. I thought I was being very clear by laying out a true story of my experience in selling health insurance. The bottom line is that we didn’t have the most expensive health care in the world, until health insurance was invented. When patients paid out of their own pockets services were more reasonable, and better in many ways. My brother, Dan, who disagrees with me, won’t remember the time the doctor made a house call because Dan was having convulsions. I’m four years older and remember it well.
As I said, WE HAVE THE MOST EXPENSIVE HEALTH CARE IN THE WORLD and are ranked 37–we aren’t number one even though we already pay a super-premium price tag. In a report published by Health Affairs, the Policy Journal of the Health Sphere in 2008 ranking unnecessary deaths by countries of people under the age of 75. Guess where the USA came out? We were number 14. Nearly double the preventable deaths of the best ranked country–France. France also topped the list as having the best health care system. Our wonderful health care system is killing us. We have been lied to and told that we are the best in the world and we aren’t.
I’m not saying that “Obama Care” as Paco refers to it is the answer, but giving the health insurance companies more, and more, and more every year isn’t buying us anything. We’ve been led like sheep to the proverbial slaughter and we are letting our fear of government cloud our judgment. If government involvement isn’t the answer–what is?
One last point, when patients paid for medical services it was much cheaper. What happened? I’ll lay it out as plainly as I can. The original idea for health insurance was probably good intentioned, but we know what the road to hell is paved with, don’t we? As the insurance companies began to amass huge pools of money, everyone wanted some. It’s like those financial corporations begging congress for a share of the bailout money and then saying they didn’t really need it after all once they found out that there would be strings attached. Doctors fees went up, hospital fees went up, and Health Care CEO’s got seven figure bonuses. For us the working public the only thing that went up was the cost, and it increases each and every year. Small businesses can no longer afford health insurance for their employees. Insurance premiums were a big factor in the downfall of the big three automobile manufacturers.
Oh, I think government shares some of the blame for this mess because they allowed it to happen. All of those businesses that Paco is so worried about are not serving us. We spend way to much on juggling propitiatory forms, doing unnecessary and expensive testing to gain pre-approvals, and fighting in court to decide whether acne is a pre-existing condition for breast cancer. It is madness. In my opinion government is the only entity big enough to change it, otherwise we need to take up our rakes and pitchforks and attack the insurance monster. I’m up for it–how about you?
I am always amazed at Americans wanting to condemn the British National Health Service by sticking the label “socialist” on it. If it was so socialist, why would Margaret Thatcher (friend of Ronald Reagan and General Pinochet of Chile) have defended it to the hilt?
What is wrong with a system that is paid for out of general taxation and available free at the point of delivery? If ever there was a no-brainer, surely this is it!
The knocks on VA care astound me. I’ve been using VA medical care since the mid-1980s, when it was truly poor. It was truly poor because our Teflon President cut funds drastically, forcing a reduction in staff that seriously affected care.
It has stepped up each year, though there has been some trouble with classifications of the disabled, and the war wounded. GWB did a marvelous job of increasing fees to veterans.
That said, the care is still on a par with, and usually better than, care found in most civilian hospitals. IME, I’d far rather have my VA care than I would have my wife’s civilian care.
Far too many people are like the woman who wrote to one of the local papers stating she thought VA care was a bust because she had been talking to *veterans who did not use it* and they didn’t like it.
Certainly, VA care isn’t perfect, but it is very, very good and improving.
Bill,
I emphatically agree with you regarding your views on health insurance…perhaps because I, too, am self-employed and have been for 31 years. My Blue Shield plan just increased about 3 months ago by 22% and is going up another 18% in December (when I enter a new age bracket). I worked in the housing industry and my income is down 90% while my health insurance will have increased 40%. I have been charging my health insurance premiums since January of this year because I am afraid to cancel it because, as you stated, it will be impossible to get health insurance then. Something has GOT to change!
Why must we throw out the baby with the bathwater ? There are areas of health care that are working well. Why can’t we duplicate them? Why not have specific areas of abuse targeted, as in the ” over charging to Medicare.” Why can we not sanitize and recycle equipment used by seniors ? Why do “inaccurate codes” continue in the system ? Blatant abuses, such as over charging, $10.00 for one dose Tylenol if given in the hospital. Speaks of a desperate effort to keep a system afloat. Why can’t we create a “Think Tank ” and recreate our health care system ?
Instead were pulling rabbits out of hats. Thinking we’re magicians.
There is room for reform of health care in America but it is beyond ludicrous to believe that Government run health care is the answer. There are some very simple things that would help – tort reform and buying insurance across state lines – that would immediately lower costs.
And there are few issues that will take a bit more effort – like reforming the existing Government programs Medicare and state run Medicaid. And realizing that illegal immigrants are causing a huge strain on emergency rooms and the health care system – whether they ultimately get health insurance or not. This one is not difficult for the average American to understand – they overwhelmingly say to close the borders. But both Republicans and Democrats have used illegals for their own interests: Republicans want cheap labor and Democrats want votes.
And of course to anyone who has actually experienced a catastrophic or life threatening illness -say – Cancer or Heart disease – and was saved by modern medical devices and wonder drugs – you begin to understand that a great deal of cost goes to fund those evil pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers that saved your life.
The individual is much better at spending their own money than the Government. If a Universal health care bill is passed you can be sure that: 1. Incentives to produce miracle drugs and medical devices will end – and this will not only directly impact Americans but all of those other folks like Canadians and others who stream across the border for life saving care when their Government run systems fail them. 2. There will be rationing of care for Granny and whether you call it a “death panel” or simply a faceless bureaucrat running the numbers and telling Granny she doesn’t qualify for a particular procedure.
People need to wise up and pressure your Government to reform: tort reform, seal the borders, buy insurance across state lines – and other solutions that will keep this life saving system in tact and will simply reform it to lower costs.
And I am sick (pun intended) of you people bitching and moaning about the costs – yet you allow these pusillanimous pissants in Washington to waste your tax dollars and steal your hard earned treasure – and are hoodwinked into believing that the only guilty parties are Insurance companies and Drug companies.