Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
One week after President Obama announced that the nation's health insurance lobby pledged to reduce healthcare costs by $2 trillion in ten years, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is putting the finishing touches on a public message campaign aimed at killing a key plank in the Presidents reform platform.
“Mr. Obama had told the health care executives, “you’ve made a commitment; we expect you to keep it.”
When the healthcare insurance lobby realized the trap it fell into it immediately went to work to defend its control over the healthcare dollar. It is going to roll out Harry and Louise as it did in 1993. I do not think it will work. We are living in different times with different media tools.
“From a distance everything Barack Obama says sounds great. The events of the last eight years have created cynicism and despair. We are a nation thirsty for hope to solve our many problems.”
The healthcare insurance industry is going to try to destroy President Obama’s “National Health Insurance Exchange”. If congress passes the National Health Insurance Exchange it will lead to a single party payer system. The government as the single party payer is unsustainable.
“As part of what it calls an "informational website," the company has hired an outside PR company to make a series of videos sounding the alarm about a government-sponsored health insurance option, known as the public plan.’
The industry argues that creating a public insurance program will undermine the marketplace and eventually lead to a single-payer style system.
Somehow, this isn't surprising. The health insurance industry has showed it is not serious about controlling costs by backing away from the promise they made to President Obama.
Now, it wants to eliminate the public health insurance option. The public insurance option would provide an option for people who cannot afford buy private insurance because of the healthcare insurance industry’s restrictions.
“The public health insurance option is a key provision in President Obama's plan to help cover all of us. It would finally give everyone the choice between keeping our current insurance or switching to a new, high-quality public plan. And under a public health insurance plan our premiums wouldn't subsidize CEO salaries or stockholder profits we'd all save a lot on health care costs.”
There are basic problems with private healthcare insurance. Its premiums are a very rough calculation with large profits built in. The industry has reduced provider reimbursement and restricted access to care while raising premium and maintaining grotesque administrative fees. The process is opaque to all.
The government will do the same as a single party payer because it cannot afford the program.
President Obama’s thinking on cost savings is defective. The government outsources the administrative services of its present government healthcare programs Medicare and Medicaid to these very same healthcare insurance companies. The healthcare insurance companies do the same thing to the government. Its providers (physicians and hospitals) and consumers (patients) will experience the same reductions and rationing of care. The program will fail just as the Massachusetts program has failed to be affordable to the state. A systemic change in the healthcare systems payment structure must occur in favor of patients and physicians.
“If we had the choice of a public plan, private insurers would have to lower rates and improve quality to compete, so they're dead set against it.”
The crafting of a campaign by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is the first of many campaigns we will see in the coming months in an attempt to turn public sentiment against the “National Health Insurance Exchange.”
President Obama’s insurance exchange is another way of expanding the Medicare program. His plan is to arrive at a single party payer through the back door while promising to maintain the private insurance option. It is Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan of 1993 all over again. Nobody asked the practicing physicians for solutions. Physicians’ representing associations have not done of very good job of articulating solutions.
Consumers are frustrated and angry. They do not trust government or the healthcare insurance industry. They are looking for a creative solution.
The new media, the internet and blogs provide a chance for consumers to express themselves.
Consumers, it is time we drove the healthcare system because our surrogates have let us down.
“Not surprised at all by this. The health insurance companies have had an unbelievable advantage, they can do anything they want. The only thing they need to do is keep Congress happy with lobbyists because Congress is not their customer, they have their own insurance paid by you and I. It's gloves off time on health reform. These guys will pull no punches, they are fighting for their yachts. While we lose insurance if we file a claim.”
It is time for consumers to demand control of their healthcare dollar. It is time they have incentives to be responsible for their own health and be rewarded for staying healthy. My ideal medical savings account either funded by employers if the consumer is employed or funded by the government with insurance for all is the solution that must be demanded.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.
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