Farewell to the Staggering Health Insurance Protection Rackets: Cash Cow Expires

It seems near impossible to see behind the thick political veil when it comes to healthcare issues in America. The political tussling, spinning and positioning nearly always dooms any attempt at approaching an issue squarely. While career politicians and media elite are busy coveting strategic political gain, the American healthcare ship is sinking. Too bad. It almost makes callous indifference an admirable character trait by comparison.

According to a recently released Commonwealth Fund report, the percentage of working-age Americans with moderate to middle incomes who lacked health insurance for at least part of the year rose to 41 percent in 2005, a dramatic increase from the 28 percent in 2001 without coverage. According to the report, National health care spending is climbing by more than 7 percent per year, outpacing economic growth by a substantial margin and that 'Gaps in health insurance coverage—a problem that has long afflicted lower-income U.S. families—is increasingly becoming an all-American problem.' Key findings (multimedia presentation available) of the survey point out that more than half of the uninsured adults said they were having problems paying their medical bills or had incurred debt to cover their expenses. According to lead author Sara R. Collins, Ph.D., senior program officer and director of the Fund's Program on the Future of Health Insurance, the represent 'an eXplosion of the insurance crisis into those with moderate incomes'.

Somebody, please, step up to the podium and clear the cigar smoke. The bottom line is, network-wide healthcare cost in America is out of control beyond containment. If you or a loved one has ever had an extended hospital stay, you could lament the truth. Marketing, research, technology, IT.....More

Healthcare Policy in America: Perpetuating a Vacuum of Failure

A recent article in the Detroit News reported that, according to key findings obtained from a survey of 203 local company executives by John Bailey & Associates, a majority of businesses in Southeast Michigan expect to either scale back on health insurance coverage for their employees or eliminate them entirely. Over 60 percent of the companies surveyed are considering reductions in future health care benefits for employees while another 27 percent may eliminate medical insurance altogether.

It's no secret that the burden of skyrocketing healthcare costs has become too much for small business (and their employees) to bear. As unclearness and anxiety over the issues would have it, there is no lack of finger-pointing to go along with it, either. In an interesting turnabout, the tone of the Detroit News article and statements of the executives interviewed were wrought with indicting concerns over the issue of unhealthy employee lifestyle and its effect on the high cost of health insurance coverage. This is only a mirror of the incoherent healthcare message emanating from Washington that has America in the grips of frustration and inertia. No one seems to really know what's wrong, how it all went wrong or how to fix it. The worst of it is that no one really seems to want to try. The consensus in Washington is, there is no consensus.

Most in Washington are determined to selfishly tend their little plot of political/ideological real estate, at the expense of a simple little thing called common ground. Meanwhile, the vast adjoining American landscape is littered with the healthcare plight of the medically unattended, uninsured and disenfranchised. If only there were a few in Washington with the undiluted vision and conviction to lift their eyes toward the horizon and view the collateral damage.

President Bush would like America to become an "ownership society". All well and good, however, those words will continue to ring ironically impotent until Washington resolves to take ownership of America.The recently expired Senate "Health Week" dissolved in unmerciful scorn of the ever-widening procession of the sick and lame, while America helplessly looked on in hope of some political higher power ascending to "stir the waters".

The runaway cost of health insurance in America requires that two major issues be honestly and urgently addressed: the untenable pricing of network-wide healthcare services that is the result of too much provider-milking of the proverbial health insurance "cash cow" and the cost driving nightmare of having to purchase and manage health plans through an entangled mess of no less than 50 various state-imposed insurance code packages.

American workers have been precariously hostage to a healthcare system that has navigated them on a course of steadily evaporating choice and access; a system pirated by an unholy alliance of politics and provider imprudence. The money has been easy, something along the order of shooting fish in a barrel, the American worker and his disposable income being the savory target. The easy-money politics of inertia....More

Toothless Reform

Massachusetts Health Insurance Reform......a page out of the Newt Gingrich playbook for health care reform(AFL-CIO) or the Wile E. Coyote-Acme Rocket plan or just "Toothless Reform"?

It's all so hard to figure, isn't it? According to an official statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney regarding recent Massachusetts healthcare reform legistlation, the "legislation leaves middle-income families dangling without a safety net, jeopardizes families who currently have employer-sponsored health care, and gives employers a free ride ........a page out of the Newt Gingrich playbook for health care reform".

We just wonder exactly what is contained in the final signed version. While everyone pontificates over the broader ideological strokes, it's usually the fine print that kills the cat.

One thing we know, the final veto version denies dental coverage ($75M) to adult Medicaid recipients because, "it provides a service not offered by most Massachusetts employers", Governor Romney aptly (HUH?) noted. That gets right to the vanilla core of real healthcare reform issues. Call it "Toothless Reform" , if you will.

Newt, you're off the hook, 'cause maybe, this is a page out of the Wile E. Coyote 'Acme Rocket' playbook for healthcare reform? One thing for sure, if you want real reform, follow the money trail. Where it leads is where the real balance of power and core reform issues reside.

The ' 90 foot Rule', Mass Delusion and Abolishing the Laws of Arithmetic

"The elected leaders of Massachusetts have come up with a novel solution for the vexing problem of paying for health care: abolish the laws of arithmetic..." (Cato Institute: Mass Delusion on Health Care)

Alot can be made of ideology, universal health insurance coverage, common sense and political grandstanding. Notwithstanding, perhaps, heading up the list of common sense and the immutable laws of the universe is the absolute perfection baseball's 90 feet. Athough the origins of baseball have been steeped in controversy for over 100 years, one thing remains perfectly clear > baseball's flawless application of the laws of arithmetic has been the linchpin of the great American way of life throughout.

Whoever it was that magically derived baseball's 90 foot basepath rule can be considered genius and should be. Considering the constant haps of razor close plays at first base throughout the course of a game, it would seem that even the slightest deviation from the magical distance, less or more, would have rendered the game impotent and historically irrelevant, as with most legistlation that has managed to pass through federal and state houses over this same period.

Our suggestion, require the '90 foot rule', by law, to be adhered to in the political arena, with capitol offense fervor, when any attempt is made to address an issue concerning the well-being of the American way of life.

Reforming Healthcare: IBM Viewpoint

By even the most cursory analysis, America is obviously in the throes of a real healthcare crisis; a health care infra-structure that is in need of a whole new model. According tho this WebWire® release, IBM has positioned itself to provide significant impetus toward the transformation of America’s healthcare industry by spearheading a groundbreaking consortium of healthcare and health information technology organizations focused to develop a 21st century healthcare network.

These efforts intend to address a dramatic flaw in a healthcare system plagued by underperformance according to worldwide comparison. More than 100,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors, adding up to up to more fatalities than from AIDS, homicides, and traffic accidents combined, according to this WebWire® release. "Lifesaving medical advances have not come accompanied by improvements in the way members of the healthcare ecosystem (from public and private payers, to providers, researchers and consumers) use IT to work with one another. As a result, the "system," such as it is, functions much like a fragmented cottage industry".

A well documented recent study by the Rand Corporation supports this and reports, as well, that a modern healthcare IT infrastructure could save the industry and consumers up to $165 billion per year. Saving lives and saving money could be an "infectious" idea whose time has very much come to an ailing American health care system.

Buying Health Insurance Online: How to Protect Yourself

Shopping for most anything on the internet can be a daunting adventure. Between the sensory/information overload that can overwhelm even the most experienced searcher,the rampant scams and slick misrepresentations, it is easy to become fatigued and frustrated through the whole process. Doing business with "household brands" doesn't necessarily get it. Being obsessive to an extreme about personal information is a must.

The cutting-edge new trend in online advertising is "behavioral targeting", a methodology which attempts to garner, classify and store consumer profiles in a supposedly benefical, uncompromising manner to the online searcher......The point is, it comes at us from every direction, non-stop, when we are online. Always know how and to what end any personal information you provide is going to be used. No one ever has the right to your personal information without soliciting your informed permission first.

Wal-Mart Revises Employee Health Benefits, Will Offer Lower-Cost Plan, HSA's

It seems that media appetite for Walmart is insatiable when it comes to the subject of employee health insurance. Probably, for good reason. However, could it be that Walmart has become the scapegoat for health insurance "ills" of America? Just who can afford proper health care coverage?
For years, state labor laws have refused to address issues involving those big companies that have flown under the health insurance radar using questionable hiring/staffing loopholes. We guess, federal and state legistlatures will now be prompted to address the health care crisis in America because career politians now have a major name brand coattail to ride into the media spotlight. Thanks, Walmart.

Being Uninsured Remains a "Crisis" of Income

In an astounding statistical analysis, the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) reported that the greatest and growing problem of the uninsured is among those families who can afford to purchase health insurance. According to latest census figures almost 90% of the increase in the uninsured has taken hold among higher-income households of $50,000 or more. Amazingly, the number of uninsured Americans in families earning more than $75,000 has increased by 153%..... Could these income representations reflect the spiralling irrelevance of current annual household income figures that attempt to define contemporary demographic segments? Could this be the 'real' crisis of income?