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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On becoming a print broker: I dreamed I could serve customers best by leading their jobs to a printer who was the best fit, instead of attempting to force them to fit the printer where I was employed.

If you had a golden goose, in this case an employee that charged you nothing for their services, and you didn’t have to pay any health care costs, matching social security, expense reimbursement, or overhead either, wouldn’t you be dancing up and down with joy? You’d think so, but in the case of print brokers it isn’t true.

The golden goose is subject to be spat upon, derided, and treated, if not illegally, at least unjustly. Oh sure, when everything is going smoothly, that statement isn’t true, but in the real world, sooner or later some transaction is going to go south. That’s when printer’s bring out the steely knives and prepare to skin the goose.

For example, I have been doing business with a certain printer for approximately 20 years. Twenty years is the equivalent of an entire military career, to put it into perspective. For the whole 20 years they have been aware that I am a print broker. No surprises there.

The company was recently sold to a firm in California. It doesn’t bother me that the folks out-of-state don’t know me from Adam and are concerned about my business practices, they should be. What bothers me is that people I’ve worked with for twenty years aren’t defending me as hard as they can. In twenty years, the printer has never had to write off an iota of bad debt from any of my customers. Could any of their sales people boast the same record? I’d be willing to bet, not.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that the new owners want to make me as the broker, totally responsible for the customer’s debt.  Completely ignoring the fact that I neither receive the end product, nor gain any profit from it.  A generally accepted definition of broker is “A broker’s function is to arrange contracts for property in which he or she has no personal interest, possession, or concern. The broker is an intermediary or negotiator in the contracting of any type of bargain, acting as an agent for parties who wish to buy or sell stocks, bonds, real or personal property, commodities, or services. Rules applicable to agency are generally relevant to most transactions involving brokers. The client is considered the principal and the broker acts as the client’s agent. An agent’s powers generally extend beyond those of a broker. A distinguishing feature between an agent and a broker is that a broker acts as a middle person. When a broker arranges a sale, he or she is an agent of both parties.”

If I was a real estate broker and the homeowner defaulted on their loan would the bank attempt to collect from me? Of course not. That would be ludicrous in the extreme.

Why would a printer insist on making the broker personally responsible for someone else’s debts?

I’m baffled. I’m  particularly baffled at the reaction of friends who have worked with me for a whole career.

If someone could explain the logic behind this attitude by printers, I am all ears. As I see it, I bring printer’s work on a silver platter and it costs them literally nothing for my services. I do want a small discount. A discount equal to what they pay their sales representatives in commission. That’s only fair isn’t it? I ask for a level playing field, and for that I give up any benefits their in-house reps get. I know I’ve written about this before, but it’s a point so often ignored, that it needs to be hammered in. What is the real cost of matching social security, health benefits, retirements (401K’s), expense reimbursement, and overhead? If it doesn’t come to double or triple their commissions, I’d be surprised. My discount is the biggest bargain there is.

It is grossly unfair to demand that brokers pay for a customer’s obligations if their in-house sales reps aren’t personally liable too. But if they tried that one, the state Labor Commission’s would probably climb down their throats. Payrolled employees have safeguards. Independent contractors, like print brokers, are legally abandoned. There is no real protection for an independant contractor.

So why do they do it? Why do they try to kill the golden goose?  Because they can. I’ve had suppliers tell me that they work with other brokers and they don’t have a problem with the terms. I’m sad if that is true. If true it means that brokers are so used to poor treatment, that like the whipped dog, they keep coming back for more. It just doesn’t make sense. But then again, if business decisions had to make sense, the banks wouldn’t have been willy-nilly giving out non-disclosure loans for homeowners. Our whole economy has suffered because of that one.

In return, you might ask, what do I do to protect the printers? I have contracts with my customers stating that they accept the legal obligation the vendor. I have a contract, that if the printer doesn’t subbornly refuse to sign it, gives them third party rights in all transactions. And I provide any and all credit or other information, if terms are required. Do you still require my neck? Come on printers, stop trying to kill the golden goose. We are on the same team. Let’s work together.