Playing God With Health Care.

I went to church yesterday.  It was my first visit in awhile, which I suppose is a bit of a confessional.  A bit.

Anyway, besides being blown away by the minister, a 24-year old kid with the composure of Brett Favre and the delivery of seasoned pro, I couldn’t help but ponder the message, which in this case was entitled “American Dream.”  I’m not going to recite the sermon here but I was struck by the parallels to the debate swirling around health care in our country today.

Generally when folks pray (present company included) those prayers tend to be about what God can do for us.  How he can fulfill our dreams.  How we can bargain with him (or her if that’s your druthers) to satisfy our needs.  The preacher in the end, using Joshua, and the Jericho thing, reminded us in the congregation; that serving the Lord, in the end involves submission.  It’s not about bartering with God but about turning it over to him, listening, and then following.

Are there any bells going off in your head as you read this and think about the health care debate?  Man, they sure did for me.  I get the strong sense, there are many in Congress who would like us to submit.  To turn our health care needs over to the Government, listen to what it has to say, then follow.

Now don’t get me wrong; while I think this is a terrific strategy with God, I’m inclined to run like a flaming banshee in the opposite direction when it comes to the Government.   There are those in government who just don’t think we are smart enough to take responsibility for our own health care.  The would believe that tools like high deductible health plans (HDHPs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) in our hands is like giving a hand grenade to chimpanzee.

Now that’s something to pray about.

Dear Mr. President,

You are a very smart man.  Please read this article by Alan Reynolds that appeared in the September 7th printed edition of Forbes magazine.

Sincerely,

WhatisanHSA 

Death By Health Care.

In health care if it sounds too good to be true……

…I couldn’t help but think of this old adage as I Nancy Pelosi’s comments from a Washington Press Conference today. 

“America’s Affordable Health Choices Act takes a number of steps to ensure that when Americans face a health crisis, they also don’t face a financial crisis. Consumers will have more choices, so they can find plans without waiting periods and high deductibles. There will be an annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses and no lifetime limits on care. There will be no more co-pays or deductibles for preventive care that can catch devastating illnesses in time. And if you change your job or lose your job, or have pre-existing medical condition, you cannot be denied coverage.”

This is one sugary drink for sure.  The problem is that if they could figure out how to get it into a bottle they still couldn’t sell enough to pay for it.

The problem is this is not a one size fits all problem, nor does it make sense or cents (as in “dollars and…”) to try to cram down a one size fits all solution.  Congress needs to focus on giving us the tools to become a healthy nation so we can avoid, as a nation, death by health care.  They need to isolate the problems and address them individually for the constituencies the problems impact.  Eat the elephant one bite at a time, as opposed to trying to deep throat the entire thing.

p.s.  Have you signed the petition?  You can help push it a step closer to a million.

Health Care, Raw Meat And the Media

Once again, my theory on the media is playing out in the health care debate.

Basically it goes like this, despite my belief that much of the media is biased toward liberal politics; at their core, most journalists are carnivores, and when raw meat is involved, they will take the meat.  In fact they will do all they can to destroy it.

Such is the case with the media’s seeming love affair with Barack Obama.  They want to believe him.  They want to adulate him.  However, they are beginning to smell blood on this health care thing, and their animal instincts are kicking in.

Right now, the current version of the House health care reform bill is getting bludgeoned as the result of some level headed politics, a great deal of public out cry, and probably some pretty disgusting lobbying efforts.  As ugly as what is going on, it is what makes our system of government special.  But that’s not the point here.

Let’s watch this thing over the next few weeks and months and see how the media reacts as this pig goes through the sausage grinder.

Trying To Digest ” Why a New Public Plan Will Not Improve American Health Care”

My mentor, a former Delta Air Lines executive, once said to me, if anything landed in her in-box that was over one- page long it was classified as “hard” and was relegated to the bottom of the pile, to be dealt with later.  She was being facetious to some degree of course, but she was making a point.  There are exceptions to this general rule of thumb, at least from a prioritization perspective.  However, I think it is fair to say, the more words, the greater likelihood of complexity, and the higher chance that it crosses the “hard” barrier.  But health care is a “hard” issue.  

This pre-ramble is the intro to an article I just read, published by the Heritage Foundation and written by Walton J. Francis, an economist and policy analyst.  Francis introduces and then dissects four proposals making noise in the health care debate that support new public health plans.  This is a very interesting article, but one that needs a lot of digestion.   In the end, Francis basically says that the public plans toward which many bureaucrats and advocates are leaning, are wrapped in free-market language like “bargaining,” “level playing field, ” and “competition,” and these are clearly false claims that actually represent coercion of the American public.  

Simple or hard?  Read the article and let me know when you’ve got it figured out.

Steve Forbes – The Fight For Consumerism in Health Care

Steve Forbes, Editorial in Forbes Magazine entitled, “The Fight” outlined his thoughts on health care reform and specifically how consumerism in health care can provide a better solution to our nation’s health and health care challenges.  If you follow consumer driven health you know the concept is fairly simple.  Basically it assumes that individuals are smart enough to make their own decisions and the role of government should be focused on providing tools to help individuals make better decisions.

Not surprisingly, Forbes advocates:

• Insurance policies unshackled from mandates.  Mandates load the costs of things like smoking cessation, breast re-construction and morbid obesity treatment into the insurance plans of 45 year old, non-smoking, razor thin men.
• The ability to buy insurance across state lines to increase competition and drive down costs (and drive away mandates).
• Create easier ways for small businesses to purchase in pools.
• Give the same tax benefits to small businesses and individuals as are afforded larger corporations on their health insurance benefits.
• Increase the contribution limit into health savings accounts (HSAs).  Hey, if you’ve ever read this blog before, you know we like HDHPsand HSAs!!

Less government, more individual control of their health care dollar drives more pressure on the system (from consumers) to create more value.  Hmmmm, free market concepts applied to health care.  Interesting.

An HSA Guy Reflects on Mandates

While a Man Date may be something quite appealing to some of my divorced girl friends and maybe to a few friends who are guys; generally they are something that leave quite bitter taste in my mouth.  While you may not be that familiar with mandates in the context of healthcare, if you are following the healthcare debate at all, this is a concept that is buzzing like flys around a cows behind.  

Lest there be any confusion, a mandate in this context, is a requirement or requirements the government places on the market to facilitate government’s objective.  So while they are perhaps well intended, they can have pretty far reaching and often not very pretty consequences.

There are all kinds of mandates on healthcare today and more being proposed by the government.  For example, at the state level, some states require insurance companies to cover smoking cessation programs in all their policies.  Sounds pretty good right?  People with smoking habits should have the opportunity to have treatment.  Problem is, if you are not a smoker, you are paying for that mandate in your health insurance policy, which makes the cost of your policy go up.  Imagine if a state government puts 20 or thirty similar mandates on insurance companies in your state?  

On the national scene, there is talk for example of mandating that all employers provide health insurance to their employees or be fined by the government.  Again, on the surface this sounds pretty good.  But what if that company is a small business, and group insurance (because it can be more expensive than individual coverage) is not a viable option for them?  The businees could lose because they gets stuck paying a fine and their employees could lose because they are forced into some government insurance plan that does not satisfiy their needs.

The problem, as I see it, is that mandates tend to have a “one size fits all”  feel to them.  And while they certainly benefit some people, often times they cause more problems for the masses than the help they provide to the few.  And the more mandates that are belched forth from the government, the larger the hairball they become for all of us cats.

Another problem with government mandates is that they tend to be heavy on the “what has to be done” and very lacking in the “how to get it done.”   So they make decrees in the form of mandates, and then let private industry, and individuals scramble to figure out how to comply.  This creates all kinds of nasty inefficiencies and expense.

Where government can help us, in my opinion, is to provide the types of tools that enable us to understand our own personal needs and then to be able to solve those needs in a way that provides the greatest benefit to each of us and our families.    Tools like health savings accounts would be an example of a way government can assist individuals at the ……individual level. 

If you want to become informed of how healthcare policy folks view the idea of mandates, there is a great article that was posted yesterday at nationaljournal.com, where some of our nations leading healthcare policy experts weighed in employer mandates.  Follow the link below and get some interesting insight into one aspect of mandates.

http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/2009/03/the-dos-and-donts-of-employer.php?rss=1

Thanks for reading.