Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade

Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - Printable Version

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Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - the_poochies - 09-17-2009

Here's an interesting read on the explosive growth of health care premiums over the past 10 years.

When you factor in depressed wages, health care premiums have ballooned 260% since 1999.

The WSJ is reporting that 2/3 of employers plan to reduce health care offerings for employees in 2010.

And as I wrote last week, NPR reports that the healthy majority accounts for only 3 percent of all health care spending. To find out how lousy your health insurance is, you have to get really sick.

Private insurers waste money better than Medicare/Medicaid ever can. My local health insurer - which is chartered as a nonprofit - probably spends tens of millions of dollars annually flying a blimp around my state, purchasing prime billboard space and owning a few luxury boxes at the local sports arena. Overhead costs for private insurance is estimated by some to top 30 percent.

My local newspaper columnist cites his own recent trip to the hospital to describe the riddle wrapped inside an enigma that is known to the rest of us as medical billing. The insurance-medical-industrial complex hires more employees to process complex paperwork than the densest IRS office:

Every medical care giver, from your family GP to the giant UMDNJ, has to hire an office staff or full department or outsource to another company just to keep up with it. From Aetna and AFLAC to Blue Cross/Blue Shield, from Horizon to Humana, from United to UniCare, from Cigna to Mega. Different forms, different rules. A labyrinth of forms, faxes and phone calls.
The doctor's office has become a business office. All those forms and rules need more people to sort them out. At the Atlantic Health rehab center, where I was a patient for a month after I crashed, five full-time nurses were needed just to handle the insurance claims -- and subsequent negotiations -- of about 100 patients. One nurse for every 20 patients, just for insurance.

This issue should cut across party lines, because no one likes waste. Whether you're for a public option or not, how can our current bloated, inefficient health care system better encourage cost savings from doctors, patients and its own employees?

Would standardization of fees and billing codes among private insurers be a start? DiIonno's column above states that private insurers are talking about increased cooperation and streamlining, but are failing to take action.

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - Mac1337 - 09-17-2009

What is this $500 billion dollars in Medicare waste Baucus is promising to cut?

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - Acer - 09-17-2009

It's clearly unsustainable, and it's approaching a tipping point. Ten years from now, I'll wager half the people screaming "Socialism!" at the town meetings today will be on their knees begging for any health care plan they can get because their employers finally gave up on trying to offer it.

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - the_poochies - 09-17-2009

Dakota wrote:
What is this $500 billion dollars in Medicare waste Baucus is promising to cut?

That's a good point, but what I think you would get from Medicare is far better transparency than what we presently see with private insurers, who hide behind "trade secrets."

Medicare/Medicaid payments to the states have been declining for 30+ years. I would wager that the states that are experiencing historically catastrophic budget shortfalls could trace the roots of these shortfalls to their compensation to hospitals for losses in Medicare/Medicaid funds from the feds.

When a hospital shuts its doors in my state, usually the outgoing CEO will cite decreased Medicare/Medicaid payments as a significant factor in the closure (but blaming illegal aliens attracts better headlines and requires less footwork from a compliant news media).

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - Mike Sellers - 09-17-2009

Acer wrote:
It's clearly unsustainable, and it's approaching a tipping point. Ten years from now, I'll wager half the people screaming "Socialism!" at the town meetings today will be on their knees begging for any health care plan they can get because their employers finally gave up on trying to offer it.

Yep, that's what I've been saying. We're going to have government-run health care at some point but it will be many times more expensive than if we would just fix the problem now. Just like the housing industry crash. Could have been minimized or even averted if steps had been taken 10-15 years ago. And ten years from now we'll be pining for the days when we could have fixed the problem for only $250 billion a year.

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - $tevie - 09-17-2009

Mike Sellers wrote:
[quote=Acer]
It's clearly unsustainable, and it's approaching a tipping point. Ten years from now, I'll wager half the people screaming "Socialism!" at the town meetings today will be on their knees begging for any health care plan they can get because their employers finally gave up on trying to offer it.

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - Don Kiyoti - 09-17-2009

I have to pay 100% of my health insurance since I'm self-employed. In the five years I've been doing it, my monthly premium has increased by $210. That includes one age-related increase. Ridiculous.

Baucus is an insurance industry tool.

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - the_poochies - 09-17-2009

Mike Sellers wrote: Just like the housing industry crash. Could have been minimized or even averted if steps had been taken 10-15 years ago. And ten years from now we'll be pining for the days when we could have fixed the problem for only $250 billion a year.

Could you cite anything specific that could have been done?

I think that bipartisan repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act in 1980 and 1999 allowed banks, investment firms, insurance companies and mortgage brokers to combine forces and become "too big to fail."

Ted Kennedy's death brought to light how close we came to a bipartisan health care plan between the Democrats and the Nixon Administration from 1974 that became sidetracked by the Watergate scandal.

http://modern-us-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_nixonkennedy_healthcare_plan

Perhaps if Teddy and Dick were able to hammer out a workable compromise, we wouldn't be using so much bandwidth here discussing our &*%#!%-ed-up health care system.

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - Mike Sellers - 09-17-2009

the_poochies wrote: Could you cite anything specific that could have been done?

I think that bipartisan repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act in 1980 and 1999 allowed banks, investment firms, insurance companies and mortgage brokers to combine forces and become "too big to fail."

Probably not so much what could have been done but what shouldn't have been done like you cited, killing deregulation, loosening the qualifying standards to buy a home, etc. So much blame to go around just like there will be so much blame to go around when the health care system collapses.

Re: Employee health care premiums increased 260% last decade - Mac1337 - 09-17-2009

the_poochies wrote:

When a hospital shuts its doors in my state, usually the outgoing CEO will cite decreased Medicare/Medicaid payments as a significant factor in the closure

There is an alternative to closure. If your costs are not covered and you still want to stay in business, ration services.