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Health Insurance At Arm's Length: 10.19.04
Who spends an average of $4900 a year on health care but still ranks among the worst covered population of developed countries? Which developed nation, when measured against other developed countries, has the worst mortality rate, lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rate? Which country has over ten million 25 to 34 year olds without any sort of health coverage at all while adding another 1.4 million to the ranks of 45 million who have nothing to protect them?
The answer is George Bush's America. Aside from replacing him in the upcoming election and not for this reason alone, the health care problems of this country are far beyond acceptable and growing worse. If suggesting that we look north to our Canadian neighbors for help, then I am on record as suggesting that adopting a system of socialized medicine is the next best way to fix what seems unfixable. But it won't happen.
Both candidates have suggestions to repair a problem that has grown larger with each passing year. Mr. Bush would like to institute a sort of medical rationing called Health Savings Accounts or HSA. (You can find information on this type of plan here but it is important to note that the difference between medical savings plans and the current offering is control. In a MSA, the employer controls the plan,; in a HSA, the employer is in charge.) This plan, which has received an icy reception from the very businesses it was designed to help, is as expensive in some instances for the employer as current plans, many of which are not even considered.
United Health Group, an insurer of over 18 million employees has begun to offer the plan to its subscribers. Even with rising costs, the plan has seen only 150,000 show any interest at all and with only one in three employers even bothering to offer the plan to its employees.
Accused of creating a plan that provides the wealthy another hefty tax deduction, the President's plan is not realistic enough to attract the average wage earner, the one who is most likely to lose his or her insurance because of high costs.
The employers have found things about the plan that they do not like as well. The first is portability. Employers like loyalty and health benefits have been the main attraction, especially over the last several years, that keep employees working for the same company. With a health savings account, the employee may now leave and take their plan with them.
Families currently suffering from chronic and long term illnesses and who may also be low income will find the plans wholly unsuited to their paychecks no matter how much their employers contribute to help.
The employers, in many instances will have the same contribution to the employees plan as it does under current HMO plans.
Does Mr. Kerry have a better plan? Possibly but it is not a cure-all for the ailing system. Once you disregard the high cost of government that the GOP insists will be created by this candidate's plan, taking catastrophic illness off the list of employer based plans is a logical choice. While this does nothing to address the high cost of healthcare, his program for reinsurance is a step in the right direction, albeit an expensive one. When asked how he would cover the costs, he pointed towards the misdirected tax breaks that were awarded the top earners in the country.
Its unfortunate that Mr. Kerry has not attacked the President on the flu vaccine shortage. This is a tragic misstep that will cost lives this year. Indicative of a growing problem because of reliance on big business to control the marketplace, prices for drugs and medical care will continue to rise without restraint.
Using litigation costs as a reason medical care costs have risen is a mote point. These cost should be present in any industry and are designed to act as system of checks and balances.
But single payer systems will attract only a few adventurous souls. Our current system is built around insuring only the elderly with Medicare and the poor with Medicaid. The rest of us, unfortunately are on our own. This is becoming an ever-increasing and often unaddressed drag on the economy.
Even with developed nations whose workable social medical plans are transparent enough for even the most jaded critic, there is little chance that special interest groups will roll over for the sake of the economically challenged. The best we can hope for is some relief from the extended costs of long term illness, the kind that devastates the working class of America.
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