If you click on the post, there is the story in the Wisconsin State Journal on the Dean Health System elimination of 82 jobs. In the story, there is the deeper explanation of the why---the fact that the mix of patients has been changing. There has been a 32% decrease in the number of commerical insurance patients and an increase of 27% in Medicare and Medicaid patients.
Traditionally, Health insurers have used "cost shifting." That means that they given large governmental entities a lowball price for their business and then charge commerical insurance carriers, who would insure a regular business more. AND, the person who must pay cash pays the MOST of all. This disparity of prices is why if you just innocently ask your medical clinic right before you get a treatment, " How much will this cost?", they cannot tell you. They will respond, "It depends." Yes, it depends on who is paying the bill.
The other part of the story is that those who do offer commercial insurance will counter by offering less coverage for the same amount of money. So, the resulting effect is there is a rising number of people who have NO insurance and paying cash and a rising number of people who have less insurance coverage. Not good news.
How could this be improved? Bring high paying jobs to Wisconsin. Stem the loss of manufacturing jobs. There is also the folks who want to pass laws to mandate benefits. Like sick leave etc. In summary, there is a disagreement on how to change this trend.
You make the call.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
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I have no problem with health care, I get hurt I call in and I see somebody sometimes the same day. Canada and their socialist health care would mean I probably call in, wait 4 months and then see someone. I make a living being a consultant/sales broker profit is not a dirty word. Let's look at liability reform a issue our Governnor Doyle recently vetoed. Owning my own business a few months ago I received a phone call from a group (I do not still have their name) explained to me what they do is get thousands of small business owners together and approach large insurance companies to get better rates. They had some decent rates. Why couldn't we do this with or under or uninsured members of our society?? Just a thought
ReplyDeleteI think it is time to take a serious look at socialized medicine. We are at a point in time where manufacturers like GM and Ford are facing a major crisis. They certainly could compete better if they didn't have the health care expense that they do in the current model. Unfortunately, labor unions oppose this, because they have a financial interest in running their own health plans.
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