Thursday, July 09, 2009
Super-size Your Health Insurance
According to Boston.com the folks in Congress believe you must
provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and even farmers’ markets.Makes sense, right?
Walking paths promote healthy activities as well as jungle gyms. Streetlights help to keep us safe, which is healthy. And farmers markets sell healthy food.
Critics argue the provision is a thinly disguised effort to insert pork-barrel spending into a bill that has been widely portrayed to the public as dealing with expanding health coverage and cutting medical costs.It's not pork, which of course can be unhealthy, but community transformation grants. Why didn't I think of that?
But advocates, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, defend the proposed spending as a necessary way to promote healthier lives and, in the long run, cut medical costs. “These are not public works grants; they are community transformation grants,’’ said Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Kennedy, chairman of the Senate health committee whose healthcare bill includes the projects.
“If improving the lighting in a playground or clearing a walking path or a bike path or restoring a park are determined as needed by a community to create more opportunities for physical activity, we should not prohibit this from happening,’’ Coley said in a statement.So logical.
If you are a member of Congress.
A House version of the bill caps the projects at $1.6 billion per year and includes them in a section designed to save money in the long run by reducing obesity and other health problems.So having jungle gyms and walking paths reduce obesity.
Then why have I gained weight since buying a rowing machine several years ago? The machine has been carefully stowed away in my basement along with my dancing to the oldies tapes with Richard Simmons.
“We will see a return on this investment if you use this money strategically for proven, evidence-based programs,’’ Levi said in an interview, citing efforts to stop smoking and to promote physical activity. “We will prevent or reverse chronic diseases such as heart disease. . . . It will pay for itself.’’Well there you go. It is part of Obamaman's Paygo scheme.
“We spend 75 cents of every healthcare dollar treating people with chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and asthma, and only 4 cents on prevention,’’ Harkin said in a statement. “But the majority of these diseases can be prevented through lifestyle and environmental changes.’’This is all true.
The problem is, most people would rather take a pill than actually change their lifestyle even if it means better overall health. Perhaps if we paid people to live a healthy lifestyle that would work.
Since obesity is a major contributor to health issues, maybe a tax dollar credit for each pound lost.
Lose 20 pounds, take a $2000 tax credit. Every year you keep the pounds off you get the credit.
That's a change you can believe in.
Health Wonk Review: Two-fer Edition
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Told ya so...
Government and Terror Insurance
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Don't Forget the Java
Best of All Worlds? The Healthcare Affordability Model [Updated & Bumped]
Bob Laszewski is one of the brightest health wonks I know, and a frequent read for me. Joe Paduda, another bright health care policy guy, sent us (and several other health care policy bloggers) a link to Bob's newest effort, called the Health Care Affordability Model.
Monday, July 06, 2009
The Maine Problem is . . .
You may recall, Sen's Snowe and Collins were two defectors from the Republican ranks that led to Senate passage of the pork filled Spendulus Bill. The $800+ billion package of taxpayer money that promised to save or create jobs.
So far the only thing it has created is a bigger hole in the federal budget.
But I digress . . .
So perhaps because Snowe and Collins seem to be an easy touch for spending money Congress doesn't have, Maine-iacs are lining up voicing their support for massive health care reform.
In Presque Isle, Ms. Matson and others recruited by the Service Employees International Union, delivered dozens of handwritten letters to Ms. Snowe’s office. The union is campaigning for a so-called public option — a government-run insurance plan, similar to Medicare but open to more people, to compete with private companies.I often wonder what these folks really know about Medicare. Good chance they are totally misinformed or else they would not be chanting for an expansion of Medicare.
Though Maine has only 1.3 million residents, the challenges of insuring the entire population are complex. The state has large rural, poor and elderly populations with significant health needs. It has many small businesses and seasonal workers, and few employers large enough to voluntarily offer employees insurance. Meanwhile, most insurers no longer find it profitable to sell individual coverage here, leaving a few companies to dominate the market.Let us not overlook the reason why there are only a few companies operating in Maine.
Maine is a guaranteed issue, community rated state. Any carrier offering health insurance in the Badger state must offer coverage to anyone regardless of their health history. Not only that, but they must charge a rate that is commensurate with others who have similar coverage within a geographic area.
Perhaps this is why Maine has some of the highest health insurance rates in the country.
But back to the topic at hand, the folks in Maine want a federal bailout, much like GM and Chrysler. Their own Dirigo plan is belly up so they want the rest of the country to pony up to pay for their problems.
I have a better idea.
Why not just secede from the union and become part of New Brunswick, Canada. After all, Canada's health care solution is so much better than ours.
Actually part of Maine's problem is their own doing. If the state government would quit meddling with health insurance rules and allow free market rule more carriers would enter the market and premiums would become more affordable.
Of course some residents have their own idea.
Stavros Mendros, a consultant from Lewiston, is equally wary of insurance companies but his solution is to avoid them completely and risk going without coverage. Mr. Mendros said that when his 4-year-old daughter got sick recently, he took her to the hospital and paid the $1,200 bill, which he said was cheaper than a single month of an insurance premium for his family would be.Saving boatloads of money. Easy to say when the bill is only $1200.
“Not having insurance saves me boatloads of money,” he said. “My biggest concern with the government taking over health care is the waiting lists. My daughter didn’t have to wait. I’d rather have a bill than a dead daughter.”
I doubt he would be singing the same tune had the bill been $120,000.
As the lead opposition to the Democratic plan in Maine, Mr. Bragdon has emphasized the failures of the state’s own experiment with universal health care, a law enacted in 2003 with the goal of covering all the state’s roughly 130,000 uninsured residents by this year. The plan currently covers only a small fraction of the target, partly because the state capped enrollment because of financing problems.That number would be 8,300 . . .
How's this working for you?
That Dirty, Dirty MVNHS©
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
The (Tea) Party's Over
Public Plan or Bust
Michael Jackson's Prescription Drug History
Reports are circulating that the King of Pop's death has caused the DEA to take a look into his prescription drug activity.
The L.A. County Coroner's Office confiscated a number of controlled substances from Jackson's rented Holmby Hills mansion Monday as part of the ongoing LAPD case. The DEA's diversion control program, which also assisted in various investigations related to the death of Anna Nicole Smith, regulates controlled pharmaceuticals.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown tells the L.A. Times that the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement has also come onboard and will be utilizing the state's Controlled Sub-utilization and Evaluation System (CURES) to examine the prescription-drug aspect of the case.
Narcotics are highly regulated and tracked. This is much more than the old days when parents only had to sign a book at the pharmacy before they could purchase paregoric to sooth the pain of a teething baby.
The database, also used in the Smith case, holds the name of every doctor authorized to prescripe medication in the state, as well as a record of all prescriptions.
"If it's about doctors, drugs and patients or anything that touches that, it's in our database," Brown said. "We've been in touch with the LAPD and I've talked to Chief [William J.] Bratton."
Having access to prescription drug histories is not just for celebrities, nor is it limited to narcotics. Health insurance companies have access to similar information and routinely use it when you apply for health insurance. Medications play a key role in treatment, so this is a natural resource.
Health insurance carriers like Aetna, Blue Cross, Humana, United Healthcare, Cigna and more will check your application against a prescription drug database. They want to know what you have been treated for in the last few years so they can develop a complete medical history.
These health insurance companies have immediate access to your prescriptions by subscribing to services like Ingenix and IntelliScripts. In seconds a 3 - 5 year drug history can be reviewed and cross referenced against your application.
You don't have to be famous to have your prescription drug history laid bare. All that is necessary is for you to apply for health insurance and your prescription drug file is opened and reviewed.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
What Do You Say to a Naked Man?
Keith Wright, 50, of the Bronx in New York, was taken into custody by airport authorities after he disrobed while sitting in his seat in the back of Flight 705 on Tuesday evening, authorities said. The plane was carrying about 148 passengers from Charlotte to Los Angeles, the airline said.
Wright was unresponsive when a flight attendant asked him to put his clothes back on, said Dan Jiron, a spokesman for the Albuquerque airport. "She asked him on more than one occasion to put on his clothes. She covered him with a blanket and he took that off," Jiron said.
Or maybe he was hot.
Temperature, not hot like a stud.
Wright told the FBI he is suffering from a bipolar disorder and had not taken his prescribed medication before leaving New York that morning
Oh, yeah. The old "I forgot to take my medicine" routine.
As the plane took off again, Keegan said the usual announcement to please fasten your seat belts came over the loudspeakers with a twist. The message included "a reminder to everybody to please keep your clothing on.
To be sure . . .
Oy Canada: Doc's Bailing, NICU's Missing
Even as we rush towards a similar model, it may be instructive to see how well nationalized health care's actually working out for our Neighbors to the North©. While in Chicago earlier this week (for our daughter's college orientation), my wife and I overheard a Quebecois gentleman, in the Windy City on business, telling his associates about health care, Canadian style. I was able to take some notes, which I'll share with you.
When asked about Canadian health care, he responded "when you can get it, it's pretty good." He went on to say that "if you can afford it, the best doctors are available." I didn't quite understand this at the time, since Canadian health care is, after all, "free." As you'll see in a moment, this isn't really true.
He followed up by observing that you "take what you get;" again leaving me puzzled: haven't we been told, ad nauseum, that health care is readily available Up North? And again, I later learned the bitter truth.
In his very next breath, he admitted that "care in Canada is not as good as what you get in the US." I should point out that he said he was from a city "100 kilometers from Quebec."
So what, exactly, is the truth here? Is he simply a dissatisfied Canuck, or does his opinion reflect reality?
You be the judge.
Is quality health care truly available in Canada? Well, it depends on where in Canada you live. The gummint-run health system is administered at the provincial level (as ours is regulated, for the most part, at the state level), so quality and accessibility of care can vary greatly. While critics of our system point to Canada as a role model, perhaps the tragedy of little Ava Stinson can serve as a useful rebuttal:
Turns out, there were no (as in: zero, nada, zilch) Neonatal Intensive Care Units available in the whole of Quebec.
Not. A. One.
So of course, they headed south (as have so many others before them), in order to save their baby's life. Thankfully, medics at Buffalo's (mmm, wings!) St. Joseph's Hospital will apparently be able to help, thanks to American medical technology and care. In fact, a (very) quick Google search revealed four NICU facilities in Buffalo alone.
Would it be presumptuous to ask the national health care proponents why they hate Canadians?
But certainly good quality care is available to all?
Not so much:
As we've repeatedly pointed out, one of the problems with our own national health care system, aka Medicare, is that there are a lot of doc's who shun MC patients, and the concomitant reduced reimbursement rates. Looks like that particular virus has spread North; more and more Canadian physicians are opting out of the government-run system and (back?) into private pay, private practice. That was apparently what our Quebecois businessman meant.
Does this all sound familiar?
It should: the Canadian government does, indeed, spend less on health care for its citizens, proving the old adage about getting what one pays for.







