WP: A Health Care Cost Shift (from employer to worker)

[DeepModem Mom]

A Health Care Cost Shift

By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 16, 2005; Page F01


Consumers face what many health care experts describe as two distinct tracks of care for those lucky enough to have insurance through their employer.

Track one: the common, and increasingly expensive, alphabet soup of plans such as HMOs (health maintenance organizations) and PPOs (preferred provider organizations) in which millions of Americans participate today.

Track two: relatively new "consumer-driven" packages, backed by President Bush, that encourage people to enroll in high-deductible plans and then set up tax-sheltered accounts to help pay for what's not covered. The theory is that individuals will be thrifty in their medical choices because they can keep whatever funds they do not spend.

"Employers are looking for relief, and they don't know how to achieve that relief," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a consumer group that supports health care for all. "So the one tried and true thing they feel they can do is shift the costs from their part of the ledger to the worker."

Those workers spent ever larger shares of their paychecks on health care and got less for their money in recent years, federal and independent studies suggest. The number of Americans spending more than a quarter of their income on medical costs climbed from 11.6 million in 2000 to 14.3 million last year, Families USA said. And premiums increased faster than overall inflation during the past six years, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported....



http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11146-2005Jan15?language=printer

[izzie]

1. This seems to be a fact

As long as gov. all over the world pay for a national heath care and we have to do it our self through a job, these Corp. will have trouble keeping up. They must get rid of the cost and we must spread it over the whole pop as the rest of the modern world does. Also the people have better care than we do here.

[Erika]

2. Yes

It needs to be known that our health care is the best in the world to
wealthy Americans. Those who are not wealthy here receive inferior health care when compared to the rest of civilized nations.

People need to wake up.

[NurseLefty]

3. Bush doesn't know jack shit about health care!

<<The theory is that individuals will be thrifty in their medical choices because they can keep whatever funds they do not spend.>>

Thrifty, as in not going to the doctor unless "you really have to"?! Ya know, just ignore those chest pains and wait until you actually collapse before getting it checked out. Great idea!

PREVENTATIVE CARE IS KEY to treating illness - duh!

And, the idea of health savings accounts? Like many average Americans, do they have any $$ to save? Instead, they have big credit card balances to whittle away at. The * administration has its collective head up its ass.

Sorry to say this friends, but w/ the continued ignorance and malice of *, health care in our country is doomed. DOOMED.

[kypper]

12. Oh, but he does...

I give him more credit than that. He knows full well that people won't save the extra money that they get from not paying insurance; many people have no insurance at all. He wants to seem compassionate while providing the HMOs with increased incentive to screw Americans over unchecked; bet they pay a whopping amount to his campaign and his pocket.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. Thanks for posting, kypper -- and welcome to DU!

[readmylips]

4. Health Care which does not cover Dental Care....

For those of us with no Dental Care, each visit to the dentist is no less than $300. As we get older, we have more dental problems. A crown is $500 to $600. I had two implanted molars, it cost me $5,000.

I see so many toothless people in this rich nation of ours. When people lose their teeth, other health problems are created.

Yes, let's throw in prescription glasses. I have no coverage for glasses. I just got my glasses at Costco; cheapest frame $40.00, exam $80.00, making my glasses etc, added up to $350.00. I had no change in vision in two years, I wanted the same prescription but the new law says that you must have an exam even if your vision has not changed. All I wanted was a new hinge for my old glasses but glasses change so much, I couldn't find a hinge to fit my still good glasses.

All those damn fancy fames are made in China. It's only plastic. If they have the Dior, Hilfinger, etc. name, the piece of plastic will cost $200. and up.

[Ms_Mary]

7. That's why I'm wearing warped glasses when I need them.

Thank goodness I don't HAVE to have them to see.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

10. I know what you mean readmylips - I'm only 26, but I cannot

afford to go to the dentist. I haven't been in a couple of years. It would mean not eating for a few weeks if I chose to go. (I refuse to get a credit card). Last time I went they told me I had the beginnings of 5 cavities. I just don't think many people realize how expensive the dentist is...
Glasses, yes that is a headache and a half. I have horrible eyesight, and stepped on my glasses a couple of months ago. Thankfully my insurance covers eye doc appts. I didn't know there's a new law saying you must have an eye exam! What utter B.S. Costco is the way to go, I went to Pearle a few years ago, and was robbed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. I have dental insurance

if you want to call it that.

My dentist gave me a flyer that was titled: "Why Dental Insurance Isn't Really Insurance"

And it's not. Yes, it is better than nothing, but not by much.

[Bill of Rights]

5. My plan switched to Bush's crap

I think I may be more fortunate than most. My employer gives me $58 per month to pay for bills. The most I have to pay is $1300, but I have to come up with all of it. I will miss my prescription co-pays.

[Ms_Mary]

6. "Induviduals will be thrifty in their medical choices" Oh, that's funny

They won't be able to afford medical care. That's what that means. It means less preventative care, less healthy care, fewer well check ups, not catching serious problems early enough. Thrifty...that's just what we need.

[don954]

8. I’m betting with the loss of health care benefits

most of us wont see a raise in pay to compensate.

[tlcandie]

9. As long as you have a job and you make a salary where you can

afford to pay this is okay, BUT those w/o jobs or sufficient salaries this is NOT okay!! Besides, just where they hell are you going to save that money?!?! There is not one place to put your $$$ where it draws or makes a good return unless you put it into metals or foreign stocks. And how many so-called average Americans are going to do that? Also, I really do NOT want the hassles of having to deal with insurance companies day in and day out over every little thing!! It's a nightmare! Between Rx co-pays, doctor co-pays, and our part of the insurance payment....we DO pay a lot for insurance already!! You can bet this is meant to screw most of the people if not all except those with lots of moolah!!!

And whoever above posted about this doesn't even cover dental or eye-glasses!! And where's preventive?!?!!? THAT would help lower the costs overall and problems down the road if this country really started paying attention to preventive care!

[ismnotwasm]

11. I just switched jobs

To one where I pay quite a bit less for healthcare. One of the reasons for the switch. My husband has MS, and his medications, MD appts., and treatments add up to a lot of money each month. I make "good" money, but health care costs eat up a lot of it. He does have Medicare, but they won't kick in until the primary insurance does it's thing, and of course, doesn't cover certain treatments. A difficult situation, but MS is one of those diseases where we have to fight it contantly, with everything we have. We can't afford to have inferior healthcare, so I'll continue to shop at second hand stores and drive old cars. (Not that I mind that! I'm a sucker for a bargain.)

[depakid]

13. Stupid economics

Lack of healthcare- particularly a basic package that includes preventative and primary care- causes falling productivity. There's no two ways around that.

In addition, employer based healthcare causes American products to be less competetive vis a vis products from, say, Canada, where companies don't have to subsidize healthcare.

What Bush and the Republicans propose is (as usual) the worst of all worlds. They continue to weaken the country as a whole and potentially threaten the public health- which, btw- threatens rich people right alongside poor people.

The only way these "consumer drivel" proposals make any sense at all is if Bush and the Republicans really are planning for the end days....

[Sgent]

16. Actually a couple of doctors got sued, and lost...

Is the reason they won't renew scripts over two years old w/o an exam.

The Opthamology society recommends an exam every 2 years for people between 21-50 who need glasses.

A doctor got sued for renewing an old script, and the patient got into an auto accident.

If you have health insurance and a eye related health problem (frequent headaches, blurred vision, etc) the health insurance will cover a opthamologist visit (not optomitrist). It probably won't cover the refraction, but that shouldn't be very much compared to the visit as a whole.

At least in my area, dental cleanings run about $200/yr (including x-rays, etc), for 2 cleanings.

[Doremus]

15. The medical and insurance industries each have an arm and they're

pulling, * is standing on our chests, and eventually the

middle class is going to explode.

Squeezing every last cent out of the cash cow will prove fatal.

[DeepModem Mom]

17. That is quite an image, Doremus, and very apt...

re. the plight of the middle class, and below.

[area51]

18. "The theory is that individuals will be thrifty"

Riiight. We'll somehow choose not to get sick & be thrifty, as if one chooses to get sick. And for those people who are only making really sh*tty service-wages in this GW Hoover dying economy, they really don't have the option of setting money aside for medical care, if they want to continue eating & paying the rent. We need our tax dollars to stop being stolen by the nazis & to have universal health care now like civilized nations.


"Prosperity is just around the corner." -- Herbert Hoover
"The economy has turned a corner." -- GW Bush

Herbert Hoover = GW Bush

Neither man cared about the Depression their economic policies created.

[rainbow4321]

20. $475/month for a family of 5

is what my sis's hubby pays at his GM dealership job. It went up a $100/month starting Jan 2005...and that is STILL with a $1500 PER person PER year deductible! He makes around $35,000/year so it is taking a chuck out of their monthly income since when one of her kids gets sick, they ALL come down sick (doc visits, meds, etc...)
And their plan doesn't even cover dental...

[PROUDNWLIBERAL]

21. Cost of Bushs' Healthcare Plan

People will wait longer before they seek medical care, and they will be sicker when they see a medical person. This will cost more and it will come on the backs of the people.