For years providers and pharmaceutical companies have been gouging employers and their health plans.
ObamaCare is a clear indication the government has zero interest in addressing the real problem, cost of healthcare, and more interest in social engineering and getting their hands on trillions more of our dollars.
It is past time for employers to say they have had enough and to take control of the situation. Here is an opportunity for the brightest minds in America, business owners not politicians, journalist and pseudo soft scientist, to solve this problem.
I propose we form an American Association of Self Funded Plans. By joining together we will have the unity to stand up to providers and government with a very simple but proven platform. All members upon joining pledge to do the following;
On January 1, 2014 our plans will reimburse Medicare +/- X% or Cost Plus X%.
On January 1, 2014 our Drug formulary will consist solely of generic medications unless there is no therapeutic generic for that condition in which case a brand name will be covered.Hospitals: you have 18 months to get your affairs in order at which time you will be seeing a substantial reduction in revenue.Governments: you have 18 months to make sure your consumer protection laws are sufficient to protect consumers from price gouging providers.
Pharmaceutical companies: we will only reimburse the generic price of prescriptions, if a member wants a brand name drug you need to convince them of the added value. Plans are no longer going to pay 5 to 10 times as much for a tweak in time release or combination of two old pills. If a member sees value in these one offs they can pay the difference.
From our experience implementing these and similar changes we would expect participating employers to see an immediate 20-30% reduction in insurance cost. The system has been able to bully individual employers in the past, threats of collection letters to members, high price attorneys, etc. If tens of thousands of employers representing millions of members join together and do it at once, those tools of extortion will not be nearly as effective.
Together this is a problem business can easily solve.
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