“I never thought cigarettes would do this to me!”
Business Insurance, September 27, 2010
A Hewitt study concludes that group medical costs will increase 8.8% in 2011. The prime reason? “Aging workforce” is Hewitt’s concluesion.
We think there are other more reasonable explanations, such as secretive PPO contracts that include automatic “pay raises” for participating providers, as much as 12%, year after year after year.
The compounding effect of these “pay raises” mirror medical inflation it seems. According to the Hewitt report, medical trend for each of the past five years (including estimated trend for 2011) have increased medical costs by a whooping +48% since 2006.
Does our medical care delivery system need fixing? Everyone says “YES.”
The real root of rising medical costs is rising pay for medical care providers. Third party payers insulate the consumer from the real cost so consumers dont care, dont ask, but continue to demand low co-pays, and low out-of-pocket expenses from the insurance industry. Consumers simply dont get it.
Thus, Nationalization of the United States Health Care System has started. Government will provide access to health care to all, lower costs, and generally improve the system according to career politicians who favor government intervention.
We have a better solution – mandate the end of health insurance completely, prohibit employers from offering any kind of group medical benefit plan, and transform the health care delivery system to a cash based system as currently exists in Communist China. Then consumers and providers can bargain for care in a competitive environment.
“Hey Doc, I can pay you $250, give you my fishing boat and my hunting rifle, for that colonoscopy I need.”
