Wednesday, March 17, 2004
The Buck Stops...Where?
Boy, thank god we have no-to-low inflation.0 comments
[Question: How can there be no inflation if everything I see, touch, smell, hear or taste costs 50% to 300% more than it did three years ago? Just asking...]
If inflation starts to rise, none of us would be able to afford to breathe air or even to eat cat food, with the way things are going.
L.A. Times: California's Health-Premium Costs Outpace Nation's
The health care premiums you pay rose 13% in 2002. Then, in 2003, they jumped an additional 13.9% (in California, 15%). That's a 27% increase you were handed in just TWO YEARS TIME. This, of course, comes with the national inflation rate bouncing around the 1%-3% range over the last few years.
The typical cost of employer-provided health insurance was $3,383 nationally. For a health plan covering the employee and his or her dependents, businesses paid an average $9,068. Workers' shares of these ballooning tabs have risen from the $1,000 range in 2000 to the $3,000 range in 2003.
That's YOUR hard-earned money. Gone "poof."
Feeling soaked yet?
No?
Here's my favorite section:
With greater access, patients have more leeway to see specialists and to be treated at research hospitals, which can drive up the cost of care.
Industry executives and consultants said there were other factors at work. These include rising hospital expenses to meet new nurse staffing and seismic retrofit requirements, which are translating into higher premiums. Fewer insurers also are operating in the state, giving them more control over rates.
You can clearly see here that it's all YOUR fault.
"You darned consumers keep wanting to consume, and you keep demanding some minimal quality instead of just paying for what we give you, and that's just causing us to incur more costs which we'll just happily pass back on to you."
Forced to quell the outcry over having untrained, minimum-wage, GED-wielding "Technicians" replace highly trained licensed and registered nurses for critical patient care, the health industry feels entitled to soak you for that.
"Awww, Little Baby doesn't wanna hafta die in the hospital, screwed over by under-paid cretins who don't care about you and give you the wrong medicine, or don't answer your call-bell because they're watching the NCAAs? Well, then pay up, Sucker! We're not taking the hit for that on our bottom line.
Plus, if you're in California, feeling queasy about their constructing a hospital on top of a fault line for $0.40 on the construction dollar, then be prepared to pay through the nose for the peace of mind of knowing the place won't fall down around your IV-hooked-up tush if the ground has a minor shimmy.
Or for that part that's not YOUR fault, it's because Congress and state legislatures lifted regulations that unreasonably propped up competition, lowering prices. They forced us into letting the free market work. Now, with no legal restrictions, we're all forced to merge and consume our competitors, to consolidate small companies, firing most or all their staff, and to absorb the dramatic cost savings. We didn't want it this way. Really. Now, with no one to say 'Boo' to us, we're forced to limit your choices from twelve companies to two, with the resulting pressure on us to spike prices through the roof. So, you see, it's not our fault, it's Congress's."
Let's see Gov. Arnie take the lead on this issue. He wants a national platform? OK, they just handed him one. California is the hardest hit by all the financial pain showered by the health industry upon the American people. Arnie's in the prime bully pulpit spot.
Someone, somewhere is going to have to poke a stick in the spokes of this runaway wheel. Someone has to say, "Stop! Enough!"
Arnold should think of it as a script. There is a runaway train—set off by unscrupulous, greedy villains—which is heading straight downhill towards a small, peaceful village, threatening to kill all the good, wonderful villagers, and the train is heading RIGHT FOR THE SCHOOLHOUSE! We can only be saved by a powerful hunk of a man who is brave enough to climb aboard that hurtling locomotive and somehow stop it, while having all the bad guys shooting at him! Somehow, AGAINST ALL ODDS he dispatches them all just in time to stop the train—RIGHT AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR!!! And everyone is happy, except what's left of the villains. I think that this could be something Arnie could get excited about.
With his honeymoon in full flower, and the additional muscle and goodwill he gained by getting his state funding initiatives passed, Arnie's the perfect guy to do this.
How about "Hasta la vista, Kaiser!"?
Or, "Hey,Pfizer! Ah'll be bahk!"
At what point do we all say, "Stop!"?
Do we flee the system; do we step out of health care programs altogether before we're priced out or pushed out? Do consumers do it, telling their bosses, "don't bother, we ain't payin' for it anymore"? Do businesses do it? Do they give up their concern for their employees, realizing that staying in business is more important than recruiting inducements or labor peace?
How would the health industry react if their consumers turned on them, en masse?
Would they jump for the obvious, and increase the soaking of the dozen or so concerns and businesses that were left, to make up the shortfall?
Or would they be forced to reverse the cycle and refuse to pay unreasonably outlandish returns to their stockholders, and pass greed-containment back along the whole chain of suppliers. Does a hospital really need to pay 2,000% of R&D costs over a decade to a manufacturer of the latest whiz-bang equipment, instead of a saner 40%-50%, or for a shorter timeframe? Does it have to pay outrageously inflated prices from the drug companies to cover the barrage of advertising and sales staff and Congressional lobbying costs incurred to keep their shareholders' stock prices high?
The answer, obviously, is no.
If the muscle went in the opposite direction, everybody could get on the sanity train and stop feeling so much like gouging the next guy to make up for their getting so badly gouged.
Shareholders get a decent return; health product manufacturers reduce the prices they charge; people and institutions buy more of their products; these companies can now buy more health coverage for their workers who, in turn, have more money left from their checks to buy more goods and services, which puts more money into everyone's pockets. The economy grows, businsees can afford to hire, people go back to work. Boom times return. Flowers grow. Israelis and Palistinians embrace. The Mets win the World Series. Peace resides in the valley.
Makes sense.
So, George W. Bush won't do it.
But, can it happen? Can/Will someone step up to put that stick in the spokes?
(Beat...beat)
N'ahhhhhhh...
So, America starts hoarding cat food before prices go even higher.
Pass that can opener, would ya, pal?
Pop Quiz:
When's the last time that your representative in Congress,
or your Senator represented YOUR interests?
Get Angry! Have your say.
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posted by Gotham 11:57 AM
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