H/T to Spencer Kornhaber over at OCWeekly for this little bit of political theater.
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who hopes to replace Barbara Boxer as California’s junior Senator, was interviewed on Fox News Channel today and was asked about his perspective on the Health Care legislation before the Senate. DeVore claims that the high costs of our health care system are because many of us have insurance and therefore don’t ask about the cost of our health care. He thinks that the problem is that doctors are forced to perform too many tests to stave off potential lawsuits.
“Average consumers are not incentivised to ask questions about the medical services they are consuming, because someone else is paying the bill,” DeVore says. As a result we have been over consuming a lot of medical services.”
Watch it yourself. I am sure that Chuck will tweet about his national coverage and expert analysis.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWIqWGndIxM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Watch this 16 minute video with Dr Cynara Coomer, a surgeon. Obamacare will make things worse.
Chuck Devore is correct in a large sense regarding his assumptions about consumers who have employer provided health insurance. I witnessed it first hand for many years while negotiating contracts for my former employee group. In those days medical costs were not so expensive and health insurance premiums were much less. The employer was paying 100% of the premium cost and we had a PPO Plan with a $200. annual deductable. Employees paid nothing for the benefit and had no comprehension of how it worked, or what the cost was. In other words, we took it for granted. As the years went by, the health premiums costs started to rise. Looking at an analysis by the insurance broker, we saw that employees and their families were overusing the plan by running to the doctor with every runny nose and skinned knee. With medical costs increasing, insurance premiums also increased proportionately. To reduce some of the insurance premium increases, we increased higher annual deductables for each employee and/or family. Then came the era of lawsuits and medical malpractice liability issues. This further drove up medical/hospital costs, which of course increased insurance premiums. Over the years the annual deductable has risen to a present level of an individual/family of $500/$1,000. This out of pocket cost has caused a small decrease in use by employees, especially those who are now retired but maintaining our employer’s insurance. Premium rates contine to rise and there is nothing we can do but grin and bear it. It would have been nice to see something in the new health care legislation to help reduce medical costs; i.e. Tort Reform, fraud elimination, etc. Apparently, that will not happen and for some of us, we may end up being taxes on our premium rates, if the costs continue to rise. So bottom line, we all bite the bullet and save the doctor visits for when we are really sick. Perhaps, that is not a bad thing and it will force us to be better consumers?
Health care costs have risen 132 percent from 1999 to 2009 Pat; Republicans pushed for compromises that weakened the Democrattic plans and then refused to vote for the bill once a concession was granted. Tort reform isn’t going to get you there. Single payer would be a great place to start.
Tort reform would help prevent wasteful litigation,unnecessary settlements promoted by insurance companies so cases are not prolonged. Lawyers legislate their own income and medical malpractice cases are a bottomless pit of money for them. Attorneys troll the FDA Med Watch list for new side affect tips to use for potential clients. PR agencies benefit from the numerous ambulance chasing commercials as well as lawyers,(are they the true capitalistic pigs?). The real reason there will never be tort reform is that the majority in Congress are attorneys, the president is an attorney, and if you are aware of Chicago politics they do a great job of taking care of each other. Meaningful tort reform could ensure those truly injured by malpractice are compensated and it would also drive down malpractice insurance costs. In New York State we have a shortage of OB providers due to this very issue. There is a difference between unexpected outcomes versus negligence. I know many MDs who are contemplating early retirement depending on the outcome of this so called healthcare reform. Meaningful healthcare reform should include not only gathering information on the obstructive barriers, but to analyze driving and controlling factors, and to provide common sense proactive solutions in a strategic step wise fashion over time with reevaluation of results. Congress should of prioritized problems and tackle them one at a time and reevaluate results instead of implementing haphazard reactive piecemeal solutions that are doomed to failure.
Who abuses it the most, the people who pay for their health insurance or people who get it for free?