Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Decisions, Decisions
I am torn as to what I should write about today. Two choices have leaped off the pages of today's news, both relating to health care. One is regarding the current debate around health care reform, the second is about health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs, previously known as the Veterans Administration. I have history with both subjects, as has many millions of Americans.
First, a report was released on Sunday by America's Heath Insurance Plans, a major industry trade group, stating that government meddling in health insurance will raise premiums and costs for consumers. Republicans cheered at the report, publicly stating that they were right to oppose health insurance reforms, privately, no doubt, cheering at the prospect of bonuses from health insurance companies that are funding their reelection campaign war chests.
This report was branded as deeply flawed by Jon Gruber, a health care economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Gruber's background in the subject includes assisting the state of Massachusetts in its effort to provide universal health coverage. He revealed that the report, prepared for the insurance trade group by PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to take into account government subsidies. Mr. Gruber crunched the numbers- all of them, and came up with the opposite conclusion, that health care costs would be reduced to the consumer.
Health insurance companies are also developing "low cost" plans that have extremely high deductible thresholds, ensuring that in most cases companies will be able to collect premiums and pay few if any benefits. Premiums in the neighborhood of $1000 per month for family coverage are not unheard of, with annual deductibles of as much as $2000 per patient. This means a family of four would have an out-of-pocket expense of $12,000 plus a possible additional $8000 in deductibles. The government tax credit proposed is a meager $2000. Big help. Many people who are insured are still being financially ruined by doctor and hospital bills, and still, premiums are rising, prescription drugs cost more, and co-pays and deductibles are going up as well. "Low cost" obviously refers to cost to the insurance company and not the consumer.
This is why Representative Alan Grayson stated that the Republican health care plan was 'don't get sick' and 'if you do, die quickly.' The Republicans were hopping mad at Rep. Grayson for telling the truth on the House floor, something that is apparently frowned upon. Now they are stamping their feet and screaming that he should apologize for telling the truth.
One of the biggest complaints made by the Republican Senators last week was that the health care plan would harm the insurance industry. If there were any doubts before, now you know who they are representing. Not the people.
Now on to the Veterans health care needs. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that they are adding a list of diseases to be covered that were likely caused by exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam era. Nice to see they are so prompt. Our last troops departed Vietnam in 1975. Agent Orange exposure was recognized as a serious health hazard as far back as 1970, when the armed forces stopped using it.
For the young ones out there, Agent Orange was the term for an herbicide that was heavily used in Vietnam for two reasons: To kill crops and thus starve the people aiding the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese army, and to reduce the forest canopy and thus eliminate hiding places for snipers. Aside from the moral issues of killing the food supply to pretty much everyone, Vietcong supporters or not, Agent Orange caused a wide array of illnesses, including Parkinson's and some cancers.
During the years after the troops came home and began to fall ill, veterans went to VA hospitals for treatment. Many of the sickest were told that the VA had no record of these men and women serving in Vietnam, and therefore were not eligible for benefits. It fell to sick veterans and their families to prove that they had been in Vietnam, which was frequently answered with a statement from a bureaucrat that the veteran's service records had been lost and their service could not be verified. I suppose that's where the private sector health insurance companies learned their craft.
Now that the VA has decided to add these diseases, it still doesn't mean that those ill will qualify for treatment if one goes by the previous stellar record of the VA. This is how costs will be kept to a minimum. That, and many of the veterans who were most affected by these illnesses have already died. Oops.
First, a report was released on Sunday by America's Heath Insurance Plans, a major industry trade group, stating that government meddling in health insurance will raise premiums and costs for consumers. Republicans cheered at the report, publicly stating that they were right to oppose health insurance reforms, privately, no doubt, cheering at the prospect of bonuses from health insurance companies that are funding their reelection campaign war chests.
This report was branded as deeply flawed by Jon Gruber, a health care economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Gruber's background in the subject includes assisting the state of Massachusetts in its effort to provide universal health coverage. He revealed that the report, prepared for the insurance trade group by PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to take into account government subsidies. Mr. Gruber crunched the numbers- all of them, and came up with the opposite conclusion, that health care costs would be reduced to the consumer.
Health insurance companies are also developing "low cost" plans that have extremely high deductible thresholds, ensuring that in most cases companies will be able to collect premiums and pay few if any benefits. Premiums in the neighborhood of $1000 per month for family coverage are not unheard of, with annual deductibles of as much as $2000 per patient. This means a family of four would have an out-of-pocket expense of $12,000 plus a possible additional $8000 in deductibles. The government tax credit proposed is a meager $2000. Big help. Many people who are insured are still being financially ruined by doctor and hospital bills, and still, premiums are rising, prescription drugs cost more, and co-pays and deductibles are going up as well. "Low cost" obviously refers to cost to the insurance company and not the consumer.
This is why Representative Alan Grayson stated that the Republican health care plan was 'don't get sick' and 'if you do, die quickly.' The Republicans were hopping mad at Rep. Grayson for telling the truth on the House floor, something that is apparently frowned upon. Now they are stamping their feet and screaming that he should apologize for telling the truth.
One of the biggest complaints made by the Republican Senators last week was that the health care plan would harm the insurance industry. If there were any doubts before, now you know who they are representing. Not the people.
Now on to the Veterans health care needs. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that they are adding a list of diseases to be covered that were likely caused by exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam era. Nice to see they are so prompt. Our last troops departed Vietnam in 1975. Agent Orange exposure was recognized as a serious health hazard as far back as 1970, when the armed forces stopped using it.
For the young ones out there, Agent Orange was the term for an herbicide that was heavily used in Vietnam for two reasons: To kill crops and thus starve the people aiding the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese army, and to reduce the forest canopy and thus eliminate hiding places for snipers. Aside from the moral issues of killing the food supply to pretty much everyone, Vietcong supporters or not, Agent Orange caused a wide array of illnesses, including Parkinson's and some cancers.
During the years after the troops came home and began to fall ill, veterans went to VA hospitals for treatment. Many of the sickest were told that the VA had no record of these men and women serving in Vietnam, and therefore were not eligible for benefits. It fell to sick veterans and their families to prove that they had been in Vietnam, which was frequently answered with a statement from a bureaucrat that the veteran's service records had been lost and their service could not be verified. I suppose that's where the private sector health insurance companies learned their craft.
Now that the VA has decided to add these diseases, it still doesn't mean that those ill will qualify for treatment if one goes by the previous stellar record of the VA. This is how costs will be kept to a minimum. That, and many of the veterans who were most affected by these illnesses have already died. Oops.
