Archive for April, 2010
WHICH WAY WILL OBAMACARE BEND THE MEDICAL COST CURVE?
We know that more than half of all medical cost is wasted, adding no value to the patient. We also know that the total costs of medical provider billing, collection, and payment consume as much as 30% of every health care dollar—about ten times the transaction costs in every other industry. If medical care were as efficient as, say, our economy’s food sector, it would provide higher quality for a third of today’s $2.6 trillion cost and free up $1.7 trillion every year for higher wages, lower federal deficits, and a major boost in job-creating private-sector investment.
Moreover, 75% of all medical spending now goes to treat preventable chronic diseases. If we could figure out how to get people to stop eating, drinking, and smoking themselves to death, and cut out the wasteful spending, our total medical bill would plummet to only 10-20% of today’s level.
I NEED YOUR HELP–THE STATE LAWSUITS AGAINST THE INSURANCE MANDATE
Dear Readers,
I need your help (and no, it’s not a request for money).
The attorneys general (AGs) in at least 14 states (Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Nebraska, Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota,Idaho, and Indiana) have joined together to challenge the constitutionality of the just-passed federal mandate that will require all documented American residents to purchase health insurance beginning in 2014. As a former health insurance actuary, I support this challenge on the basis of my extensive analysis and conclusion that there are voluntary alternatives to mandates that will be even more effective at providing universal health insurance access while preventing the adverse selection (i.e., free-riding) that would otherwise destroy any universally available health insurance exchange like that specified by the federal law.
