Affordable Health Care for Everyone?

Ahhhh Healthcare ... one of my favorite topics as Ms.Money. I just finished a month long investigation into the world of health care insurance and was shocked by what I found. It is not unusual for a 3-person family to pay $1,500 a month for insurance (and not very good insurance at that). That is $18,000 a year. Post Tax! This means many families have to make $30,000 extra just to be able to afford health insurance. I am a proponent for tax credits. It is no wonder 44 million Americans don't have access to health insurance.

I think a hybrid system between the government and private business would work well. Private companies can't be trusted alone, and government doesn't have the expertise to manage the humongous operations of Universal Healthcare. Operating revenue for Kaiser alone is $10B a quarter.

California State health regulators fined Health Net Inc. $1 million Thursday for lying to investigators about paying employees bonuses based on the number of contracts they canceled after those policyholders got sick. Also fined were WellPoint Inc., the parent of Blue Cross of California, $1.2 million and Kaiser Permanente $325,000 for improperly canceling policies. The biggest offender is Blue Shield (my main insurance carrier for the last decade) California State's insurance commissioner is seeking a $12.6 million penalty against Blue Shield, claiming the health insurer unfairly canceled members' medical coverage and improperly processed claims.

An examination of data released i by the Department of Insurance revealed more than 1,200 alleged violations of law, resulting in more than 200 people losing their coverage after they submitted claims for medical treatment.

"Blue Shield committed serious violations that completely undermine the public trust in our health care delivery system," Commissioner Steve Poizner said in a statement.

I filled out the forms for Kaiser and Blue Shield and they are very confusing and open to multiple interpretations. I could see how they purposely keep the questions vague so that they have a case to discontinue health insurance if a big claim comes in.

You might think you have health insurance, when in fact, when it comes down to it and you have a life- threatening illness and you need treatment, you may be denied and have your insurance cancelled.

If the costs are not kept down - somewhere below $1,000 a month per month, American's still will not buy it, so it is critical to come up with a price point people can afford.

I like the idea of what San Francisco is doing with its Universal Health Care plan:

Healthy San Francisco is the first of its kind in the nation and is widely viewed as a model for local and state efforts to expand health coverage in the absence of national legislation.

When fully ramped up, the plan is expected to cost $200 million a year and is due to be paid for with a mix of city and state funds, quarterly premiums and co-payments paid on a sliding scale by participants, and contributions by employers who don't offer health insurance.

As written, San Francisco's ordinance would require private employers with at least 20 employees and nonprofits with at least 50 employees to provide health coverage at certain minimum levels or pay a fee to the city.

I also like the idea of creating a network of Minute Clinics (Your Sick, we're Quick) or similar type clinics, that are covered by a Universal Health Plan. The costs of these types of operations are less than traditional hospitals. An emergency room visit for pink eye could cost $300 and at a Minute Clinic - just $50. Everyone saves.

With electronic patients records, and improved technology for diagnosis, and a wider range of places to receive medical attention, medical costs overall should go down and make a Universal Health Plan more of a reality.

As a society, we can not afford people to drive up the costs of healthcare because they are not willing to handle their own health issues. In the same way we can't sit back and watch consumers create an economess with their reckless spending and saving habits.

Corporations should become more actively involved in promoting theiremployees health. I support what Scott's Miracle Gro company is doing in Ohio with its employees and encouraging them to take an active part in preventative health care measures by employing health coaches and other strategies to get their employees to live healthier lifestyles. Theirtactics should help reduce Scott's overall healthcare burden which wasseeing a double digit rise every year. They were paying over 20% of their profits straight to health insurance companies. Why? Over half of their 6,000 employees were overweight or obese and at least a quarter of them
smoked.

Consumers have this sense of entitlement in this country that they can do anything they want with their bodies regardless of how damaging and society will take care of that damage and fix it. I consider that akin to crashing my car in a tree and then asking my employer to pay the auto body shop to repair it, and doing it again and again. If I drove safer - drove my body a little safer, I wouldn't have to worry about running into tree - or getting sick. With a company plan, I pay the same amount each month being a health-nut who goes to the doctor only once a year, as the obese, smoker, diabetic employee who is the hospital every month for lifestyle induced problems.

Clarian Health Partners, an Indiana hospital chain (I went to high school in Indiana and have a lot of family members there), started fining their employees $5 for smoking, $10 for being overweight and $5 for high blood pressure. It could add up to $780 a year for bad habits. This seems fair to me. If people want to continue their bad habits that lead to high health premiums for everyone, they should contribute to offset the costs. My hope is this will finally be the last straw to inspire them to positively change their lives.