It is pretty clear that there will be some sort of reform coming our way; however, what it will look like is still an unknown. The issues are so clouded in political muck that there is no consensus other than there needs to be some sort of reform. Listening to the President trying to sell his bill of goods is a study in reading between the lines because I don’t think he even believes what he is saying. This issue is so much more complex than our legislators can fathom. We are talking about a business that accounts for 2.5 trillion dollars of spending a year. Let’s see what that looks like $2,500,000,000,000…that’s a lot of zeros. The cost of what Congress seems to want to do is in the neighborhood of over $1,000,000,000,000 over ten years. I think from now on everyone should have to see the dollars in real numbers so we can all get an idea of how much were really talking about. No more of this, it only costs 10 billion…it should say $10,000,000,000. Where is the money going to come from? Medicare cuts? Medicaid cuts? Increased cost-shifting? Taxes? There is talk of Employer Mandates, Individual Mandates, Associations, Pooling, tax subsidies, pay or play and the list goes on and on.
In the latest report, the democrats want to abandon the “public plan” option in favor of the not-for-profit co-op. Most of you remember the co-op we had here in California…ah, PAC-Advantage. It didn’t turn out so well for them. Why? Because what can they offer that the current market can’t? It’s clear the premiums weren’t cheaper and they couldn’t get enough members, even with the help of brokers. And the not-for-profit angle is interesting….we already have a couple of “not-for-profits” here with Kaiser and Blue Shield, why don’t they have the majority of members, why aren’t their premiums the lowest, why aren’t they everywhere? Because no provider or carrier can meet everyone’s needs. Kaiser works for some, but what about for places without Kaiser providers? Blue Shield works for some as well, but so does Aetna, Health Net, Anthem Blue Cross, Pacificare, and United Healthcare.
I recently participated in a debate at the local Democratic Club and I must tell you, if we can get the information out to the public we can stop bad legislation. I saw it last evening. I had someone come up to me and say that I was the first person she had heard speak that actually had real information to share instead of just party rhetoric. Although this is a politically charged issue its ramifications know no party lines. So, I urge you to get out there and talk about it, educate your clients, your families, even your competition because in the end it is our job to make sure we take care of the public interest and keep them from getting in their own way. I will keep you posted.
Respectfully,
Chuck Rosen
