Anthem Blue Cross is going to raise their rates by 39% despite the 2 billion in profit they made last year. They keep this up and they will empower those calling for universal health insurance. Speaking of. . . did you hear on average that 4 out of every 5 dollars for healthcare are paid by somebody else? That makes it pretty hard to do cost containment when the people making a trip to the doctors have very little incentive to restrain spending for a test or a procedure or even question the need for it.
Last Nov. I went to my doctor with chronic nasal inflammation. This was something that had been dragging on for several months and out of desperation I said, I wonder if an MRI would find anything? (I heard that a polyp can cause inflammation and it’s found by using an MRI) Good idea! she said, I’ll schedule you. The MRI of course came back clear, but it cost me $547 – it didn’t meet my insurance deductible. But, the point is, in most other cases insurance would have covered it and then the costs are passed on eventually in the form of higher premiums. And so often tests are done for that 1 in 10,000 chance that it might be …whatever.
Today’s medical practice is more about docs trying to cover their butts than it is about providing effective and efficient healthcare, and in the process of doing the CYA bit the cost of treatment soars. Guess that’s why we spend roughly twice what Europeans spend for their medical care. In my case I wish I had asked how much it was going to be, because I probably would have declined; as it was the sinus infection finally just went away on its own.
We do have a healthcare problem in this country and we need reform. Doctors should be allowed to practice medicine without fear that if don’t order up tests for every conceivable possibility they will not be sued. We also need to affordable (basic) health insurance for folks in their 50’s up till they can get Medicare. This is when health insurance gets really expensive! I refused to believe that insurance costs could go up 138% (4 X the rate of inflation) in the last 7 years due patients requiring more care! Something is wrong here, somebody is making some money in this deal, you can bet on it.
Unless we can get some cost containment and reform you’re going to get fewer raises, there will be lost jobs and you will wind up paying more and getting less. The rising health insurance costs is like a silent tax on American workers and the companies that hire them and that’s really hard on small businesses! Today the average premium for employer-sponsored health insurance is $13,375 a year for family coverage, with employers paying nearly 75 percent, or $9,860, according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Something has to be done, we can’t keep going down this road, it’s a dead end.