Let’s brainstorm for healthcare reform.Time to think outside the box. What follows is a “what if” discussion that could help us discover new solutions to existing problems of national concern. If the following numbers are somewhat inaccurate, it should not matter.Premise: There are three large rocks in the road for Obama’s Health Care Reform.First is that solutions based on more government are anti efficiency and anti economy. The Russian experience with communism proves that “What’s in it for me” and “use all the brain power available” are better means to good solutions.Second is poor transfer of information, even with the internet. Perhaps that problem lies with our education system. Self responsibility is simply the best approach to health care via prevention based on good life styles. Despite this, folks still desire to lose weight while eating all the calories they can find, and to be healthy while smoking, vegetating in front of the TV, and drinking too much alcohol and sugary beverages.Third is greed. Drug companies manage to sell us on pills that are less effective than good life style, and other companies still promote worthless herbal pills and magic weight loss products. Imagine making placebos, sugar pills, for 10 cents per hundred, including packaging. Charge $1 per pill and recommend one pill per day. 90 cents times 365 days per year is $328.50 income per year. Of course, most magic pills are sold for much higher prices, and to far more than 1 person. Re run that calculation for n – million people, where n ranges from 1 to 316 (USA 2008).Here is one approach to health reform that just might work. It can’t be less effective than all the policies already tried.1. Go for national health care, also known as free health insurance.Remove ALL restrictions on out of pocket payments for health services, such as are now making Medicare such a frustrating tangle. (Let individual choice warn us when the national programs are not cost effective.)2. Speed up deliberations by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) on approval of new medicines and review of old approvals. Require honest clinical trials with no sponsored authors or bribed publishers. Demand full disclosure of all claims and evidence, available via internet, both for on and off label use.3. Deny free health care to anyone who smokes, is overweight, does not exercise at least with a 2 mile daily walk, uses any recreational drug, and generally ignores basic health common sense. Of course, the fast food industry will have to reform or go under.4. While we are at it, let’s also wipe out the major incentive for most organized crime. Make all recreational drugs available at very low cost with no legal restrictions on use. And emphasize prior paragraph. One option would be to tax such drugs as we now do tobacco and alcohol.5. Now take all the monies presently spent on fighting illegal drugs, plus funds raised from “sin taxes” on tobacco, alcohol, plus the proposed decriminalized recreational drugs and apply them to paying for the free national health insurance.What are ballpark dollar amounts for this discussion? Even with internet search engines helping, the following numbers are rough estimates.We now spend nearly $12 billion per year to fight illegal drugs, plus several times that for legal prosecution of dealers and users, prisons, government employees, and related police work. The total is estimated to be on the order of $50 billion per year to fight drug war. How much we spend on the actual drugs is hard to estimate, but is probably several times as much. For discussion, say $100 to $200 billion. (Wow!)Obama has said that “Healthcare is one-sixth of our economy, …”The U.S. GDP for 2008 was estimated on the order of $14 trillion, so that means about $840 billion, or around $3000 per capita of roughly 300 million USA population. (That is actually not a bad average figure, if true.)So, let’s say we transfer roughly $100 to $250 billion a year from the drug war and drug purchases. Were talking maybe 12 to 29 percent of the cost of health care. Not enough to make “free health insurance” really free, but probably enough to keep the trust funds for Medicare and Social Security from near term bankruptcy.Is this discussion merely a fantasy? Perhaps. But so are all the government programs for fighting drugs and providing health care to our masses.Remember, the Great Prohibition on alcohol did not work, but awareness programs and self help groups do. An element of self responsibility is essential.

Popularity: unranked [?]

December 9, 2009This Week in Health Reform —Legislative OverviewSenateLess than two weeks after the debut of official legislative language, the Senate began official debate on its $848 billion health care reform bill “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (H.R. 3590) on November 30. The bill, which is estimated to cover 94 percent of Americans, passed its first hurdle before the Thanksgiving holiday when Senate Democrats received the needed 60 votes on the “motion to proceed” to debate. Quoting & Saving just got easier…EasyToInsureME Health Insurance Quotes… Quote all carriers in secondsHealth insuranceHealth insurance quotes More than 60 amendments have been filed to the Senate health care reform legislation in its first week of debate. Some of the notable amendments include one by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), which was adopted by a vote of 61-39. The amendment would eliminate co-payments for many preventive services for women – and would require that insurers provide full coverage for breast and cervical cancer screenings. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) also included a stipulation to the amendment that would preclude the most recent controversial recommendations on breast cancer screenings by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from being used for insurance coverage determinations. Additionally, Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) are crafting an abortion-related amendment that will mirror the one passed in the House version of the bill last month. The amendment would prohibit the use of federal funds for abortions.Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE) is leading efforts in the Democratic caucus on the creation of a public health insurance option that is built around a state-by-state “trigger” option. Carper has spent weeks working with members of the Democratic caucus, as well as some moderate Republicans on the amendment that he is hoping will appease a broad range of individuals concerned about the government-run health insurance plan, also known as the “public option”.Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) still has significant work to do in uniting his divided Democratic caucus. Reid has stated that he will keep Senators in Washington on weekends throughout December to ensure that key legislative issues are worked out before a final bill can be brought to the Senate floor. As detailed above, Reid will have to balance trying to appease the progressive members of his party with a robust government-run health insurance plan with corralling the moderate and conservative Democrats who have been vocal on issues such as abortion and cost-containment measures. HouseThe House of Representatives remains quiet on health care reform legislation after passing its portion of the bill in November. Its main focus during the next few weeks before the holiday recess will be on a financial regulation package to be brought up by the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Although the health reform acts were passed in March, the guidelines are not clear as to how the changes are going to be put into effect. Therefore, although everyone agrees that health reform is happening, no one knows how it is going to impact family health insurance Georgia plans. There is a lot of confusion at this time. There are certain changes that need to be implemented by the federal government, and some changes that take place at the state level. However, at this time, Georgia is not making many changes, and a federal agency may step in to regulate and pay for some of the needed programs and plans required. Georgia is not rushing to make changes because government officials are concerned as to whether family health insurance Georgia plans will end up being negatively affected by the new rules and regulations.

In fact, Georgia is one of several states that have filed a law suit against the federal government. The big issue is whether it is constitutional or not for the federal government to require that every American citizen purchases a family health insurance Georgia plan, or one from their home state. However, it is highly unlikely that anything come of the law suit, because suing the federal government is very unusual.

In the mean time, many people have questions, particularly about whether they will be allowed to keep their current family health insurance Georgia plan. The law states that you are allowed to keep your current family health insurance Georgia policy. However, many family health insurance Georgia providers are changing their policies and plans. Things like the co-insurance, deductible, and premium are changing. Therefore, there is confusion as to whether this makes the plan be different enough that one can change, or whether one will be required to change that plan. Also, many family health insurance Georgia plan providers are changing their rules about certain policies. For example, many companies are no longer offering Child Only policies. But yet, not all children will qualify to be added onto current family health insurance Georgia plans.

Right now, many government officials at the federal and state level are working together to has out the details of how changes will affect family health insurance Georgia plans, and what it means to the health insurance consumer. Different health insurance Georgia companies are working, along with their national trade association, to clarify the rules and regulations, and minimize the negative impact on family health insurance Georgia policies and premiums for Georgia residents.

There are many sources of information on how the health reform will affect your particular family health insurance Georgia policy. Depending on your political viewpoints, you will find a lot written both positive and negative about the health care reform, and the changes that will occur to family health insurance Georgia plans.

Eventually, reform is going to be a good thing, but in the mean time, there is a lot of confusion and a lot of concern about what is going to happen to family health insurance Georgia plans

Popularity: unranked [?]

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin met with several small business owners this weekend to draw attention to the benefits of health care reform for those owners and the self-employed.“Right now small businesses are at the end of the tail that is wagged,” the Democratic lawmaker explained. “They don’t get the discounts and the rates and the coverage like the huge businesses do because they just don’t have the bargaining power, and they don’t have the choices available to them. So many small businesses in Iowa basically have one insurance company to deal with or maybe two at the most. So, therefore, there is no competition out there.“I think one of the best-kept secrets of our health reform bill that we have in Congress right now is that the biggest winners are going to be small businesses and the self-employed.”A lack of competition within the health care market, according to Harkin, would be alleviated when a national health care exchange is opened a few years following the passage of reform legislation. At that point, small business owners and those who are self-employed would theoretically be able to go onto the exchange either as individual entities or in cooperation with other businesses and/or individuals, which ever way provided consumers the best insurance rates.Prior to that time, however, the bill also includes a provision that would allow small business owners to take up to a 35-percent tax credit for the portion of health care premiums they pay. Once the exchange opens, the tax credit jumps to 50 percent.Cedar Rapids small business owner Shawn Gallagher, who had just spent a few minutes speaking with Harkin about the difficulty he and his wife have had providing health insurance coverage for their four employees at AdCraft Printing, said such reforms are not only welcome, but necessary.“One of the reports I’ve read shows that it will cost $27,000 per person or something like that if nothing is done,” Gallagher said. “We certainly couldn’t afford that. So I guess the question is how many years it will take to get to that level. Is it 2012? 2013? I don’t know, but we aren’t that far away from it. What I do know is that we just flat-out can’t afford it, whether it is a year or two years down the road.”Through his commercial printing business, Gallagher provides health insurance for himself, his wife and four employees. The business has experienced an average yearly increase of 14 percent in the premiums it pays. Gallagher is also quick to point out that even as he has been paying steady increases, his family and his employees are receiving less coverage and paying much higher deductibles than they were only a few years ago.“It is very difficult. This is something that we want to provide to our employees,” he said, noting that with such a small pool of employees, any moderate illness impacting one of his employees’ families can have dire consequences on the entire company’s health insurance premiums.Harkin, who has spent the past several months in reform hearings and public forums, said Gallagher’s plight is not at all unique.“What we just heard from Mr. Gallagher regarding his small business and employees is, sadly, something that we hear all over Iowa and all over the United States,” Harkin said.Gallagher, who is also a long-term member of the Democratic Party and was one of thousands of Cedar Rapids business owners heavily impacted by the June 2008 floods, was only one of several small business owners that provided Harkin details of their struggles with health insurance costs. The meetings were scheduled with the assistance of Iowa Citizen Action Network, a grassroots public interest organization that has been actively supporting national reform efforts.During the meeting in Cedar Rapids, Harkin once again vowed that Congress will pass health care reform with a public option and have the bill on President Obama’s desk before the winter holiday recess.

Popularity: -23% [?]

While Massachusetts previous year became the first state wanting each one to purchase health insurance, the proposals in California could come up with an even bolder trial, because the Golden State’s problems are so much larger. “It’s now a bigger face in California,” says Marian Mulkey, a senior program officer at California HealthCare Foundation, a non-profit organization think tank. “That’s not to say it’s insurmountable.”

California health insurance, for example, a predictable 4.9 million people are short of health insurance. That compares with a forecast 500,000 in Massachusetts before its plan began. That’s why politicians from other states — along with policy specialists and officials in Congress — are watching the California try closely, with its latent to set a nationwide model. Some desire a worldwide program paid for and overseen completely by the government. Some states all individuals must be obligatory to purchase health coverage, while others say such a go-ahead is draconian when premium costs are so high.

Health insurance in California hit a barrier surprises few. The challenge is huge and the solutions are contentious, splitting lawmakers. Republicans devastatingly do not support the two Democratic health-improvement measures, which are in play in California, nor did any back the governor’s plan. While their suggestion shares some of the governor’s ideas, Democrats part with Schwarzenegger in two important ways: They do not desire to need individuals to purchase health insurance, and they wish employers who do not provide insurance to pay more than the governor proposes.

“Any development in California would make a considerable dent in the problem of the uninsured nationally,” says Larry Levitt, a health insurance policy forecaster for the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit study group based in Menlo Park, Calif. “Action in California would make genuine momentum, both in the presidential debate and in other states.”

In Massachusetts, years of preparation went into the health-reform attempt before the government — overpoweringly in agreement — passed its measure. “If you are going to refinance one-sixth of the world economy, you would better not do it on a 50-to-49 vote,” says Jon Kings dale, head of the state agency overseeing rollout of the program in Massachusetts. “Enacting something is only semi the challenge.”

Popularity: unranked [?]