Comments on: The Final Four http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/2007/05/21/the-final-four/ Research and discussion of the Colorado health insurance industry and the healthcare crisis in America. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:34:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Colorado Health Insurance Insider » Blue Ribbon Commission Corruption http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/2007/05/21/the-final-four/comment-page-1/#comment-7568 Colorado Health Insurance Insider » Blue Ribbon Commission Corruption Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:58:10 +0000 http://www.insuranceshoppers.net/blog1/2007/05/21/the-final-four/#comment-7568 [...] after the State of Colorado contracted with Lewin Group to review the 208 commissions proposals on the future of health care in Colorado, Lewin Group was bought out by United Health Group (UHG).  UHG is the largest provider of [...] [...] after the State of Colorado contracted with Lewin Group to review the 208 commissions proposals on the future of health care in Colorado, Lewin Group was bought out by United Health Group (UHG).  UHG is the largest provider of [...]

]]> By: Jay Norris http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/2007/05/21/the-final-four/comment-page-1/#comment-6498 Jay Norris Tue, 22 May 2007 05:41:33 +0000 http://www.insuranceshoppers.net/blog1/2007/05/21/the-final-four/#comment-6498 Well spoken, and true. However, I think proposal #5 focuses on the goal of covering the uninsured the best. "Most" of those uninsured don't have coverage because they don't make enough money or because they have pre-existing conditions that prevent them from getting individual coverage and can't afford guaranteed issue coverage. They're getting subsidized already. This program will just make it a more efficient way of doing it, through tax dollars that everyone pays instead of shifting costs to only those that have insurance. As for the problem of people making enough money to afford health insurance but still not having it, now they're required to have it. Well spoken, and true. However, I think proposal #5 focuses on the goal of covering the uninsured the best. “Most” of those uninsured don’t have coverage because they don’t make enough money or because they have pre-existing conditions that prevent them from getting individual coverage and can’t afford guaranteed issue coverage.
They’re getting subsidized already. This program will just make it a more efficient way of doing it, through tax dollars that everyone pays instead of shifting costs to only those that have insurance.
As for the problem of people making enough money to afford health insurance but still not having it, now they’re required to have it.

]]> By: MIke Feehan http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/2007/05/21/the-final-four/comment-page-1/#comment-6493 MIke Feehan Tue, 22 May 2007 03:32:44 +0000 http://www.insuranceshoppers.net/blog1/2007/05/21/the-final-four/#comment-6493 Well, this is all very interesting, but it seems to me that each of the "final 4" proposals only suggest ways that the State can pay for the cost of health care - none of them makes a practical recommendation that would reduce the cost of health care. IMO, that is a losing strategy. Health insurance premiums are high because the cost of health care is high. Health insurance premiums are rising because the cost of health care is rising. The solution to health care cost problems will not - not - be found in some insurance scheme. I think the thought leaders in our country are behaving rather like the fellow looking for his lost watch under the street lamp, where there is light, instead of over there, in the dark, where he felt it slip from his wrist. OK, the health care cost problem is immensely difficult, and so people avoid facing it. However, it does not go away when it is ignored, as the experience of the past 40+ years amply illustrates. It seems to me that the ideas that have reached the "finals" will have the principal effect of pouring more money, thru the insurance pipeline, into a broken system that has proved that it cannot control its own costs. I think this can have only be one result - still higher costs. Well, this is all very interesting, but it seems to me that each of the “final 4″ proposals only suggest ways that the State can pay for the cost of health care – none of them makes a practical recommendation that would reduce the cost of health care. IMO, that is a losing strategy.

Health insurance premiums are high because the cost of health care is high. Health insurance premiums are rising because the cost of health care is rising. The solution to health care cost problems will not – not – be found in some insurance scheme. I think the thought leaders in our country are behaving rather like the fellow looking for his lost watch under the street lamp, where there is light, instead of over there, in the dark, where he felt it slip from his wrist. OK, the health care cost problem is immensely difficult, and so people avoid facing it. However, it does not go away when it is ignored, as the experience of the past 40+ years amply illustrates.

It seems to me that the ideas that have reached the “finals” will have the principal effect of pouring more money, thru the insurance pipeline, into a broken system that has proved that it cannot control its own costs. I think this can have only be one result – still higher costs.

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