A predictable tsunami of a website disaster, inattention to details by the administration, repeated tossing of wrenches into the works by the republicans, a government shutdown, a defund movement, dozens of worthless votes against Obamacare rather than looking for how to fix it and gross overpricing are some of the problems that have led to the current disaster in progress.
The Democrats wanted healthcare reform badly. And so it has been done. What would every thinking person want? Affordable insurance, optimal pricing, coverage for important items, reward for healthy lifestyle (good diet, no smoking, low substance abuse including alcohol, exercise), risk sharing over a large population group, no prior existing condition clauses, no drop clauses, and you don’t go bankrupt if you get sick.
That sounds great to most people not brainwashed by the media. It sounds good to republicans, independents and democrats. Many of these are principles historically espoused by people from both major parties.
One would expect that with a large risk pool insurance costs would go down. Most models predict that and it sounds like a reasonable assumption. But having healthy people in the risk pool is especially important according to most republican theorists and the democrats have gone along with that. So, there needs to be an incentive for young healthy and older healthy people to sign up. Right now there is a negative incentive: 1% of your salary as a penalty for not signing up. And the pricing itself is at the rip off level. Young people are told they are priced higher because they are covering old people who can’t be priced at more than 3 times their rate. Healthy older people have it high because they are underwriting pediatric dental care, fertility and obstetrics issues which they will not require.
And today, the insurance companies who like this plan which is a giveaway to them with overpriced insurance being subsidized in many cases by the federal government. While theoretically review boards were set up to keep rates affordable. They failed. In spite of high rates, some insurance carriers decided against participating in even populous states panels. This appears to be more an expression of politics than of finance. Which is the same as the group of red states declining to participate even with the financial incentives for them and for their needy constituents. How one wants “states rights” which used to be a code word for things that weren’t rights for many people, but still throw the responsibility back onto the Federal Government for implementation of a plan that allowed states to fine tune it and have their own individual carriers and plans makes no sense at all.
One of the main things I did not like about Hillarycare was the setting up of 50 different panels, groups, and the increased costs of having so many different insurance plans for so many states. We’ve got that now since the smaller states seemed to desire it. Now they have very few choices in those states and believe the prices are high because of that. Well, everyone who is not going to be subsidized finds the prices high: old people, young people, families, singles and groups. It is high. Do we have any potential remedies?
Single payer is not a possibility and not going to happen. So that is not on the table, and neither this nor any proposal discussed here is a step in that direction. What you have today is not a government takeover of insurance no matter what you’ve heard on cable news or liberal or conservative media. It just isn’t. It is still corporate today, but could use a bit of assistance of a different sort to get some downward pressure on the premiums.
First, get the oldsters out of the pool, so the young people can stop being told their plans are costly because there are so many freeloading old people on their plan. Before the debacle that is ongoing now began, I thought Medicare should be expanded to those 57 and up. But, the price gouging related to age begins at about age 50. So, I’d expand Medicare down to include, (“Medicare-Light” as a form of insurance) those down to age 50 (negotiable age of course). Those between 50 and 65 generally have far fewer health expenditures than those 65 to 80. Their premiums would be higher than Medicare is and would not be subsidized in any way by Medicare savings. Their pricing and cost assistance would be under Obamacare provisions. And voila, the older people are in their own risk pool, will pay money that will likely help underwrite Medicare for those over 65.
Everyone should get a cost incentive for regular exercise, no smoking, good health and normal BMI (with exception for athletes who have a high BMI from high muscle mass).
It is possible that this will not go far enough in price reduction. A plan that is somehow set up as a “self-funding” plan by those in it to keep costs low and administered by one or more insurance carriers could work. This would be a “public option” of a sort. Large corporations have done this, and many government plans have done this. With the exception of the state of Illinois which has done a terrible job, most other self funded plans have worked well. I am not an expert on self funded plans, and I do not know their status after January 1, 2014. But I’m sure there are experts who can decide if this or some other solution is viable to have an alternative for a lower priced option for those under 50. I am not necessarily a fan of the “Medicare for all” which for many would be what has been opposed as a government take-over of healthcare. Competition is important and the government as a monopoly holder of insurance plans would not be a good thing.
The current dumping of individuals from their individual insurance plans is the last gasp of cherry picking by the insurers. They could all have made the current plans updated and told the individuals how much the new compliant plans would have cost. But that would have been a reasonable approach. Dumping was quick, effective, and made everyone else look bad.
Yesterday, it was announced that Maryland would not implement the business portion of Obamacare. Somehow this has not made the National news. This has tremendous ramifications. It is an embarrassment for a state that said how wonderful their new plan rollout was going to be and how well prepared they would be. But their Wizard of Oz has been revealed as a fraud. There was nothing behind the curtain except a slow, mostly down, failing web site hiding overpriced plans. But this seems to me to indicate that it is not possible to get this off the ground on a national level right now.
Scrap it and start over is a political motto and a cop out. But I’d scrap the current web designs and vendors and start them all over. I’d fine tune the plan and amend it so that it is an affordable plan for more than just those receiving government assistance. Right now, the burden of pricing is on the federal government and those working Americans who do not need federal assistance. Rework those failing websites, start them over, and get to work on fine tuning and a major reworking of this plan to make it affordable for all.
References:
Maryland Delays Full Healthcare System Rollout (WSJ)
The interview covered a lot of ground. We did not review the questions in advance. Instead we did wing it. Free range always sounds best to me. Tina was well prepared and asked questions that led to many different areas.
