Shock in my Jock. What Obamacare is Doing to Me. Survey Says…It’s Twisted Sister

This blog is like an old friend, and it’s been a long time since I spent any time with it/him/her. But friends are forgiving, right?

So where have I been and why should you care?? I am about to come off a magical ride back into corporate America after the years I spent as an entrepreneur in the HSA/HDHP space which answers the “Where” question. And if you are still reading at this point, the answer to the more important “Why” question? Well, I am back into the individual health insurance market right after the crunch of the enrollment deadline for the “Affordable Care Act.

As I wade through the morass (I like that word, morass, because I can use the word “ass” with no shame. If I can figure out how to use the word “assassin” in this article I will use it as it is one of my favorites, and I will let you figure out why) a classic line from my favorite Billy Joe Shaver song, “Georgia on a Fast Train” races out at me.

 “I Got a good Christian raisin’ and an eighth grade education, Ain’t no need in y’all a treatin’ me this way”

WARNING: I FEEL A RATHER LONG ARTICLE COMING ON SO HERE COMES THE PUNCHLINE IF YOU WANT TO BAIL.

On one hand our government is treating us like we are absolute idiots and assuming (there’s that word again) they have got it all figured out for us. On the other hand, they can’t figure out how to explain it to us. Who is the idiot here? Here’s a thought for our supreme leader and his party; Please respect our eighth grade educations.

If one has to have a master’s degree in healthcare policy, administration, and insurance to figure this thing out, how’s does one suppose the rest of us are going to do it?

This is quite a pre-ramble to my own personal story, but a bit of ranting and complaining is always good for the creative juices, so thanks for bearing with me. You may find some similarities to your own situation here.

First item, I am learning a lot by being forced into this process. However, unlike the last time I was in the individual insurance market and was able to figure it out myself, this go round, after my initial plunge, I have had to turn it over to an insurance broker.

Until January 2013, I had an HDHP through Humana (Humana One) which was a bare bones policy with a $10,400 deductible for my family and no drug benefits. It did cover physicals for the family. I paid $310 per month for that policy. When I went back into Corporate America I continued with their HDHP/HSA group option.

Today, from a broker, I received quotes both on and off the Federal Exchange. It should be noted that I have been RIF’ed from my job, and that is why I am being forced to sort this out. I have been out of the individual market for exactly one year, and if I purchase the cheapest HSA qualified HDHP the premium will be $778 per month. So, the “Affordable Care Act” for me represents a $151% premium increase and a $1,600 increase in my deductible. I do get “mental health” coverage, which, after writing this blog I might need in order to address with my budding insanity or inevitable substance abuse treatment resulting from my looming poverty.

If I elect to go off the exchange, the broker found me a high deductible health plan similar from Assurant Health with benefits similar to the on exchange plan, but the premium is $946 per month. I can go COBRA which until I started doing my research was going to be my worst option, but it is actually $18 less per month that the Assurant plan and the deductible is 47% less.

So now I am trying to figure out what my subsidy from my fellow tax payers will be if I go on the Exchange. But here are the things that have me scratching my head.   First, the less I work, the more affordable my healthcare becomes. Second, the government is happy to give me subsidies for something I don’t want (their plan) but won’t give me subsidies for something I do want (my former employer’s COBRA plan). Third, why is it that a year ago I could afford to cover 100% of my family’s healthcare insurance needs, but now, based on my expected income, the Government, if I go through the Exchange it is trying to force me to put my child on the state CHIP/Medicaid program? Fourth, why should any person, driven to purchase insurance through the exchange, expect a health care product equal to or better than what our veterans receive? Fifth, how did my 7.1 million fellow Americans who elected to go through a government exchange figure out what insurance made sense for them and for what % of them is their healthcare more affordable?

To be continued, because….after beginning this article 2 weeks ago, the saga goes on…

Two Words…Flu Snot

Seriously,  If I had said Flu “Shot” would you have given it a second look?  The idea of a blog about snot is more intriguing.  My only tip there is, if you have a river of snot running cold, remember to empty your pockets before throwing your pants in the washer or you will have a ticker tape parade of snot free Kleenex crumbs all over your clothes when they come out of the dryer.  But I digress…

 …Last night I rolled into my local CVS pharmacy and got my annual flu shot….for “free”.  And it didn’t even hurt.

Even if you’ve never read this blog, it should be no surprise that I have a high deductible health plan.  I am also one of the thriftiest people I know.  My HDHP provides annual physicals for my family so the bulk of our well care is covered.  Pretty much all our other health expenses, I cover at 100%.  But remember, the 100% I cover is paid at the Humana negotiated rate.

Anyway, about the “free” flu shot, last year, on a whim I asked the pharmacy if my insurance plan would cover my shot.  After what appeared to be a 10 minute love affair with the computer, my pharmacist advised me that it was covered at 100%.  I rolled up my sleeve, then wandered down to the cosmetic aisle, and advised my wife of our good fortune, and she rolled up her sleeve.  We then proceeded to go pick up my son from his job, and shared the good news with him, although he did not see it as good news at all and was pretty much pissed at us for the rest of the day.  We called our daughter and told her about her special plans for the afternoon and to saddle on over to the drug store and share in the fun.  She whined and complained and then complied.

At $25 a shot, we saved $100 and avoided the flu.  I haven’t gotten the rest of the family to get their shots yet, but how can they resist?  It’s a total friggin’ no brainer.

So there are a few points to be made here.  First, if you don’t have health insurance, even a modest plan like my HDHP will enable you to purchase medical services at a discount.  Basically you get the negotiated purchasing power of your insurance company, if you shop right you can, through an HDHP get coverage for your well-care (annual physical), and as an added bonus, you might even get your annual flu shots for free!

Last night I rolled into my local CVS pharmacy and got my annual flu shot….for “free”.  And it didn’t even hurt.

Even if you’ve never read this blog, it should be no surprise that I have a high deductible health plan.  I am also one of the thriftiest people I know.  My HDHP provides annual physicals for my family so the bulk of our well care is covered.  Pretty much all our other health expenses, I cover at 100%.  But remember, the 100% I cover is paid at the Humana negotiated rate.

Anyway, about the “free” flu shot, last year, on a whim I asked the pharmacy if my insurance plan would cover my shot.  After what appeared to be a 10 minute love affair with the computer, my pharmacist advised me that it was covered at 100%.  I rolled up my sleeve, then wandered down to the cosmetic aisle, and advised my wife of our good fortune, and she rolled up her sleeve.  We then proceeded to go pick up my son from his job, and shared the good news with him, although he did not see it as good news at all and was pretty much pissed at us for the rest of the day.  We called our daughter and told her about her special plans for the afternoon and to saddle on over to the drug store and share in the fun.  She whined and complained and then complied.

At $25 a shot, we saved $100 and avoided the flu.  I haven’t gotten the rest of the family to get their shots yet, but how can they resist?  It’s a total friggin’ no brainer.

So there are a few points to be made here.  First, if you don’t have health insurance, even a modest plan like my HDHP will enable you to purchase medical services at a discount.  Basically you get the negotiated purchasing power of your insurance company, if you shop right you can, through an HDHP get coverage for your well-care (annual physical), and as an added bonus, you might even get your annual flu shots for free!

I haven’t had a tetanus shot in about 15 years….wonder if my plan would cover that.  Hmmmmmm.

What has Obamacare Done To/For You Lately?

I have to come up with $635 this year to fund the 21% premium increase Humana is subjecting me to for the privilege of a $10,400 deductible and no drug plan.  I do receive well care and the benefit of Humana negotiated rates for my family’s doctor visits and lab work.  I still save a ton of $ over a traditional health insurance plan and still receive the tax and savings benefit of my Health Savings Account but no thanks to Humana for that.

If anything, the overall health of my family has improved over the past 3 years since I switched to a high deductible health plan so the premium increase is neither the result of higher utilization of the benefits nor a general decline in health.  And it certainly is not the result of a stratospheric increase in the cost of the care we have received.

Our insurance costs are increasing primarily due to uncertainty created by the chaos of Obama Care.  Insurance companies are in business to make $ for their shareholders and as the government creates a burden for them, they simply pass it right on to their customers.  In this case, that would be me.

Pretend for a moment you were in business for yourself making widgets.  You are a pretty good business person and for every widget you manufacture, you make 20% profit.  You compete in the market with other widget makers and through competition, your prices are held at a reasonable level.  One day the government decides that because your widgets serve the greater good of society, everyone should be able to buy them.  As a business person, this sounds pretty good right?  Because the size of your market just increased exponentially.  But here’s the rub, not everyone can afford your widgets and in some cases they don’t even want them.  Normally, if you had control over your business, you would simply refuse to sell widgets to those who could not pay, but the government has said you must sell widgets to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.  Well, you are not in business to lose money so, maybe you do some things to enable you to produce your widgets for less money which is a good thing, but you were pretty efficient to begin with.  If you still want to make 20% profit, what do you do now??  You increase the price of widgets to those who can afford them to maintain your profit and offset the losses from sales to widgets to those who can not pay for them to begin with.

In a nutshell, you are Humana, and I just got a 21% premium increase.  Now I have to come up with $635 to cover basically the same benefits I already have.  Suffice it to say, my privates are frosted over this latest insult, but it could be worse.  What if I had a traditional insurance plan and was paying, say $1,000 per month for my insurance and was hit with a 21% increase?  Annualized, I would have to come up with an additional $2,500 just to cover the premium increase.   That’s a pretty big nut in my book.

So looking at your own situation, how big is your nut and what has Obama Care done for you lately?  Is it the panacea we were led to believe it would be?  In the land of purple frogs and leprechauns, perhaps it is.

My HDHP Covers Well Care. What’s That All About?

Last month I had my annual physical.  It is covered under my High Deductible Health Plan with Humana.  Well, most of it is.  They covered the basic office visit, plus because I am of a special age, they covered the… ahem…prostrate exam.   I have to say, that was awwwwwwwkward.

Anyway, if you are just stepping into the world of HDHPs, “let me be perfectly clear” when the plan says it covers “well care” that means it covers your physical.  Now insurance companies are kind of squirrely when it comes to what exactly they cover in the physical, but in my case it was pretty much the visit and the prostate extravaganza.  Extra stuff like lab work and ECGs in my case, were not covered.   But here’s the thing, if you were paying for all that stuff out of your pocket without insurance at all you would probably go into shock if you had to pay the entire nut. 

Even if you have a high deductible health plan, you get the benefit of negotiated rates, which can be pretty significant.  If I had been a contestant on the Price is Right, trying to guess what the cost of the physical was and the cost of the lab work, “the actual retail price” of those babies would have been $1284.90.  But after the insurance discount I paid 104.84 out of my pocket.  For my money, peace of mind and general health, a hundred and some change seems reasonable to me.

So why well care?  Because it’s like basic maintenance on your car, which could prevent serious problems later on.  If you have a High Deductible Health Plan, the insurance discount can make the price of it affordable.  And if you have an HSA you can pay for it from your HSA either now, or let your Health Savings Account grow, and pay yourself back later.

That’s why well care.

What Is Consumer Driven Health Care?

The title of this article makes 99.9% of the citizens of our country’s eyes glaze and move to the back of their heads.  But, if you are reading this, chances are you might have a bit of interest in the topic.  You are also near brilliant.

Last Saturday, a local hospital sponsored a free skin cancer screening.  Three years ago, I would have never known about it, and if for some coincidental reason, I had, I wouldn’t have given a crap.

 But, when you have a high deductible health plan with a health savings account and then hear the words “free” combined with “health” your ears are likely to perk up like Mr. Spock’s.  Vulcan “A” man!  

 That was me last Saturday.  I went down there and just had a Vulcan great time having my moles inspected by the mole inspector general.  Actually, it was a very nice and competent PA from one of the local dermatology offices who somehow got enticed (maybe it was a Vulcan mind meld) along with about a half a dozen other qualified PAs as  to check out the moles and other skin irregularities of hundreds of total strangers. 

Not only did they check everyone out, but they gave away a ton of free sun screen samples; and I’m not talking the no-named stuff you get at the dollar store, this was the good stuff.  They were also giving away Braves baseball caps to help protect all those pretty faces.  Now who gets that kind of treatment at the normal doctor?  The last free thing my Doctor gave me was a stool sample kit.  It kind of stunk if you asked me.  

Because I have a very high deductible, the opportunity to take care of my health for the low low cost of nothing, is very appealing.  And that in short is a little bit about what consumer driven health care is all about.

It’s about becoming a smarter health care shopper.  It’s about tuning into one’s own body.  It’s about taking control of one’s well care and health care.   It’s about saving money smartly.  Consumer driven health, in my book, is a pretty Vulcan good idea.

30 Seconds to Register Your Voice And Help Change Obamacare For A Better American Health Experience

Simply Click Here to make your voice heard.

My representative in Congress is Tom Price of Georgia.  Mr. Price happens to be a Doctor (MD, not Witch) and is strongly opposed to the current version of the health care reform bill.  I sent him a letter anyway.

If you click on the link above, fill in the privacy protected form presented from “Free Our Health Care Now” which,  even if you are a slow typist, will take less than 30 seconds, hit submit and it will generate  letters to your Representative in Congress AND the Blue Dog Coalition voicing you opposition to the current proposal in Congress.

If you are still trying to get your arms around this whole Pandora’s Box of health care reform and want a bit more clarity on some of the problems with it check out this article that appeared yesterday in Investors Business Daily.

Just trying to keep it simple here.  Make your voice heard today.

Health Savings Accounts And Health Care Reform in 1.2 Million Words Or Less

Back in High School I conducted some very scientific research to determine the average person’s attention span.  If you are wondering, it is about twelve and a half minutes.

You see, whilst attempting to listen to my teachers, I found myself cruising off to the Bahamas, putting duel exhaust on my ’66 Mustang, dating the hottest hottie in school, or slapping a game winning home run.  With all due respect to Duckie, Mr. D, Bubba,  Leeeeeeeeeee, The Frau or any of the other gifted educators I was truly blessed to spend quality time with each day, I frankly had a really hard time staying plugged in.

Anyway, I decided I would undertake this experiment to measure my attention span.  Since I figured I was an average person, if I could measure my attention span, it would serve as a worldwide proxy for all the average Joes or Gradock’s out there.  The test was quite simple.  I would go to class, write down the time the lesson began, and the moment I started my cruise to the Bahamas, I would check out the clock again, and write down the time, do a little subtraction and voila, I would know my attention span.   All well and good, but I realized quite quickly that by the time I realized I was daydreaming, I was either half way to the Bahamas,  I had rebuilt the carburetor, or if I was really lucky, ahem, saying goodnight to Miss Hotinsky…

After many unsuccessfully attempts to crack the code of my attention span, I did finally catch myself at the precise moment I was pushing back from the dock.  And then, a few weeks later, was successful again.  The result…. Twelve and a half minutes.  But you already knew that already.

This morning when I got up I was chewing over this whole bit of news I’ve been hearing about the House and Senate reconciling their two tomes; the nearly 2,000 page House Bill and the 2074 page Senate bill.  Besides scratching my head and other body parts, over their continued desire to frost those turds, I started to wonder, what was the longest book ever written?  Then I set out to do some more scientific discovery.

First I decided to count the words in the Senate Bill.  Easy enough; highlight the document, copy it into word, do a word count and presto.  Well I started copying that pig and after 10 minutes (approaching my maximum attention span) I bailed and copied everything I had into word which represented a whopping 397 pages, 114,000 words, or about 18% of the document.  I’ll spare you the higher algebra, but by my count the total document is about 594,000 words.  Applying the same math to the House Bill, assuming they cram about as many words on a page as the Senate, their bill is close to 570,000 words.  Collectively, nearly 1.2 million words.

According to Wikipedia the longest novel written in either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet, is a 2.1 million word snoozer entitled Madeleine and Georges de Scudéry.  Never heard of it?  Me neither.  I perused the list of the top 15  loooooongest longest novels to determine if there were any on the list that average folks like me might recognize.  There were three.  War and Peace, topping the word scale at 560,000 words (never read it),  Les Miserables weighing in at a slightly lighter 513,000 words (saw the play), and Atlas Shrugged splitting the middle at 540,000 words (on my reading list but after writing this blog, maybe not).

The average American has an attention span of 12.5 minutes.  The average American with a high deductible health plan and a health savings account needs a couple of hours just to begin to understand the benefits of their insurance and tax advantaged HSAs.  The nearly 600,000 word piece of healthcare sausage created by the Senate is anything but average.  In fact, to most average folks, it’s downright insulting.  And here they are trying to do the Vulcan document meld with the Senate and House Bills.

Ladies and Gents.  If you can’t explain the sucker in 12.5 minutes to the average Joe, you lose his or her attention, and more importantly, their confidence.  ‘Nuff said.  Well, almost; if you have made it all the way to the end of this blog, congratulations, you just read 732 words.

Tic Tacs Are Not Qualified Medical Expenses….But They Should Be.

A week or so ago I caught a bit of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel and got a huge laugh when Bear Grylls trapped, skinned, and then proceeded to eat skunk.  I laughed hard at the smell he had to endure and could not begin to imagine the horror of that smell.   A bit of Schadenfreude I suppose.

I had no idea what was soon to beset me.

This weekend I had to opportunity to go see the musical “110 in the Shade.”  A play, that looks at the day in the life of a town suffering through a miserable drought in the early part of last century.   It was a pretty good play, but the smell of skunk Bear Grylls had to endure, had nothing on the waft that beseeched my family as we sat there attempting to enjoy the play.    I have never smelled anything so gag inducing as the road kill breath that periodically drifted into our personal airspace.  It was so bad, that every few moments I found myself gagging and my face contorting to disfigurement that would make Jim Carey proud.  My body was convulsing in obvious distress.  I’m not sure if a pallet of Tic Tacs could have cut the bite of that breath.

I’m sitting there thinking in between convulsions, that roadkill baking in the road in the 110 heat of some hot Texas highway had nothing on that breath.  Then I was wondering if maybe a possum had died, and someone had flung it under my seat.  It was all I could do not to retch and vomit.

We had great seats, but at the first intermission we happily downgraded our seats to get away from that vile smell.   While the first act was certainly breathtaking, the second, undistracted, was far more breathmaking.

If you have an HSA, sorry, but tic tacs are not qualified medical expenses.  However, if you were in a theatre the other day and found by the end of the show, seats had emptied out all around you, you may have a medical condition for which dipping into your health savings account might be a very good idea.

Save 50% on Your Food Bill and Lose Weight in the Process. Where was I when Elvis Needed Me?

I am not a doctor.  I don’t play one on TV.  I’m just a normal, if not cheap, American citizen trying to be healthy, feel healthy and stay healthy.  

A few years back I cracked the scales at my doctor’s office at a prodigious two hundred and eight pounds.  For the past couple of years my weight has hovered between 173 and 178 pounds. 

Part of my motivation to shed the tire was that I had lived a Dilbertian existence in corporate America for 18 years.  The most exercise I got at work was walking too and from the parking lot to my office.  About the only running I did was running my big fat mouth.  I was tired of feeling tired.  One day in the fall before I stepped outside of corporate America, I was out raking leaves and I had to sit down because I thought I was going to drop dead.

Before I left my job, I bellied up to my employer’s smorgasbord health plan buffet and had a full blown physical.  The leaf raking thing scared the crap out of me and I wanted to be sure if I started exercising for real, I wouldn’t drop dead for real.  My doctor confirmed I was fat and lazy but the rest of me was in fine shape if not a little round.  Prior to any dramatic changes in your lifestyle, I highly recommend a visit to the doc, to make sure you are well enough to really take control of your health.

You can pay huge money for all kinds of diet advice, but let me tell you, advice won’t lose you an ounce of blubber.   But you will lose weight if you can wrap your brain around cutting your caloric intake in half. 

You don’t need to go out and buy and special calorie counting cards or gizmos.  You don’t need to go out and buy special foods (unless you want to).  You don’t need to read the calories on the side of every box and can at the supermarket.

What you do need to do is to cut every meal in half.  Fix half as much.  If you are dining out buy one meal and split it with a friend or significant other.  Not only will you cut your calories in half, but you will save 50% on your food bill.

That’s your starting point.  You won’t starve.  You won’t be forced to eat crappy stuff you don’t like.  You won’t have to keep a log.  You will know in your head, each time you sit down to eat if you are following the plan or not.   The other important advice to go along with this is drink lots of water.  Substitute it for anything with sugar in it when you can and you will cut down your calories even more.

Once you get into the habit of eating less, then you can begin to focus on eating better.  Eat a little fruit, a few vegetables.  They won’t kill, you and they beat the snot out of that stuff the dude on Man vs. Wild eats on the Discovery Channel.

Lastly if you want to really start feeling better, get some exercise.  Make that a habit too.

In summary Elvis, here were/are the benefits for me:

• I feel better
• I lost weight
• I look trimmer if not better (my face, sadly, is one only a mother could love, so losing weight did nothing for me in that department)
• I cut my food bill significantly
• I don’t crap as much which means I have more time to do other things (like exercise)
• I sleep better
• When I went to get life insurance, all of my vitals tests put me in a health range that lowered my insurance premium
• I became far more aware of what goes in my body and over time made some changes in what I ate in addition to how much I ate.
• I changed some bad habits into good ones

 If you read all of this, good for you.  Now go take the first step baby.

The Top Ten Reasons Why Health Care Is So Friggin’ Expensive

I have an HDHP.  When I go to the Doctor to have them look at the creatures crawling around in my throat, causing me to itch all over, or making my hair fall out in clumps, I am expected to pick up the full tab until I hit my deductible.   I even have a little stash of money, called an HSA to pay for it.  BUT, I don’t pay a nickel when the Doctor is done with me.  Not immediately.

The Doctor has to put in a claim to my insurance company, the insurance company tells the Doctor how much they are going to pay, they then tell me how much I am supposed to pay, I then send the Doctor a check, the doctor tells the insurance company they received the check, and then insurance company tells me that the Doctor told them that they received the check.  If this laser-like process of precision breaks down in any way or God forbid, I don’t send the check, honestly, I have no clue what happens.

For the past couple of years, I have been writing here and for The Gradock Bulletin  about health savings accounts, high deductible health plans, consumer driven health, healthcare and wellness and pretty much anything else that comes to mind that might be educational, worth a rant and/or is somewhat entertaining.

With that said, I have compiled “The Top Ten Reasons Why Healthcare Is So Friggin’ Expensive!”  This is a very unscientific survey of one, but it points to a the gaggle of reasons that collectively (along with a few others I’m sure) that cause you and me to pay more when we go to the Doctor and put health insurance out of the reach of millions of Americans.  In light of the recent turn of events in Washington and hope for change, perhaps some Congressperson will see this post and a big bright bulb will go off over their head, and they can use this top ten list of become their beacon of change.

Here’s the list.

10.) We can’t figure out how to spell “healthcare.”

The fact that sometimes it is spelled as two words (health care) and sometimes as one scratches at the surface of inefficiency (it takes more keystrokes and kills more trees when spelled as two words)

9.) The right hand don’t know what the left hand is doing:

See paragraph #2 above

8.) Americans are fat slobs:

Which makes us loveable and friendly, but contributes to chronic illness like heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes which cost us billions if not trillions of dollars a year in healthcare costs.

7.) State Mandates:

Did you know that your state may require insurance companies to cover certain illnesses no matter whether you are at risk of it or not, whether you are healthy or not, whether you care about the illness or not.  So for example, if you are a single male living in Arkansas or any of the other 20 states that require maternity coverage, you are paying, in your premium for someone else to have a kid.  Or if you live in Connecticut or any of 9 other states you get to pay for wigs.  Or if you are a non-smoker living in Maryland, you are paying for some lung burning smoker’s, smoking cessation treatment when you pay your insurance premium.

6.) The uninsured and non-critically ill in hospital emergency rooms:

Emergency rooms, by their name and nature are set up to deal with emergencies, not the coughs of the illegals and uninsured, or the weekend colds of the insured.  This mindset may be compromising emergency rooms, and certainly is driving the cost of healthcare up for all of us.

5.) Regs on Meds:

My insurance company will not pay for, nor will they allow for money I spend on meds that come from Canada to count against my deductible.  Now some of this is to protect me from witch doctors, voo doo priestessesire and shady drug companies whipping up toxic drugs in oil drums on the streets of some third world country, and I understand that.  But part of this is driven by drug companies desire to tamp down competition.

4.) Three Card Monte Mindset:

Or in other words lack of transparency in healthcare.  Healthcare is set up so that we do not know what procedures, tests, and treatments cost, leaving us to guess where the most cost effective care is to be found.  And it is almost impossible to find the best doctors at the best prices in this environment.  There is some progress being made in this area with the establishment of minute clinics and services like outofpocket.com that are exposing the cost of healthcare which can help create more competition and ultimately drive costs down.

3.) “The Doctor’s Handwriting” and malpractice law suits:

If the Pharmacist can’t read the Doctor’s hand writing and mis-dispenses meds or has to spend more time figuring out what the thing says, then we are talking time and money.  Or if the Nurse in the hospital gives the wrong dose or the wrong medicine to a patient, that can be a bad day.  Do you know that if a drunken, illegal alien with not a nickel to his name rolls into the hospital with his arm half cut off and doesn’t like the way the attending surgeon sewed it back on, he can sue the surgeon?  Now I believe the guy has a right to sewing but not suing, unless there is horrific and obvious gross negligence.    

2.) Cleanliness is next to godliness:

Now I’m not a germaphobe but do realize how much stephastrepasyphacoctolis gets spread around because folks don’t practice basic hygiene.  That lands folks in clinics all the time with preventable illness and, yes, drives the cost of healthcare up.

1.) What about executive compensation?

We can’t let that one slide.  I’m all for people making money and if they make armored cars full of it that’s fine it they are truly responsible for creating most of the value.  But I do have a tough time with guys who get paid huge sums of cash for what sometimes ends up to be short term value, or get paid huge sums of money when they screw up and get fired.  Hey, I could screw up any big publically traded company for way less than these guys get paid.  And what kind of money are they making?  Well I took a look at the AFLCIO database on executive comp awhile back and here are a few examples:  In 2007  the CEO of Abbot Labs was paid $33 million in total comp; the CEO of Aetna got $23 million total comp; the CEO of Merck got paid $20MM in total comp; the CEO of Humana got $10 million in total comp: the CEO of UHC got $13 million in total comp and the CEO of Cigna got $26 million in total comp.

These were the ten I was able to rattle off without too much difficulty and I know there are many more.  Feel free to comment on this article with additional reasons.