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2/25/2010
Why isn't Torinus at the Summit?
California insurers – health insurers everywhere – continue to be forced on the hot seat for huge premium increases; of course the left rails about huge greedy corporations and vulgar profits.
So what exactly is causing those huge premium increases? The Wall Street Journal tells it like it is in an insightful piece last week.
Wellpoint's rate hikes are the direct result of the Golden State's insurance regulations—the kind that Democrats want to impose on all 50 states. Under federal Cobra rules, the unemployed are allowed to keep their job-related health benefits for 18 to 36 months. California then goes further and bars Anthem from dropping these customers even after they have exhausted Cobra. California also caps what Anthem can charge these post-Cobra customers.
Most other states direct these customers to high-risk pools that are partly subsidized, but California requires the individual market to absorb the customers and their costs. Even as California insurers have had to keep insuring these typically older and sicker patients, the recession has driven many younger, healthier policy holders to drop their insurance—leaving fewer customers to fund a more expensive insurance pool.
Imagine that.
Greed? I guess we have that right here in rural Wisconsin.
To stabilize property taxes at the county level, the Barron County Board of Supervisors will have to make up for the state's fiscal irresponsibility-and the series of mandates that dictate how and how much counties must spend.
Gov. Jim Doyle sometimes signs more than 10 bills a day. Those laws translate to added regulations that directly and indirectly affect county costs; some, like the new mandate on group health insurance in the last biennial budget, have an immediate effect on the county's expenditures.
Most private insurance carriers must now provide coverage for cochlear implants, hearing aids, certain autism-related costs and parity for mental health treatment. Parents' policies must cover their adult children up to 27 years of age.
According to Administrator Jeff French, municipalities and counties are budgeting for a projected 20- to 24-percent increase in health insurance premiums, which includes annual hikes plus the 3- to 7-percent cost of the mandate.
John Torinus is my health care hero – almost a one-man band beating the drums about how he and his company, Serigraph in West Bend have indeed lowered costs by empowering employees to save their own money on quality health care! I heard him speak once again the other day.Torinus has lived the solutions for the past 6 years. Why isn’t he at the Summit?
Torinus has the answers – and months ago predicted the premium increases, the accompanying uproar and wagging fingers pointed at insurance companies.
The political response by supporters of access reform will be to blame insurance companies, both for flawed analysis and for the increases. The premiums, however, merely reflect the underlying cost structure of the health care industry, and who and what it is mandated to cover. Fail to deal with the basic cost elements and you have a recipe for hyperinflation.
The profits of the insurers are not the issue. The cost drivers are the issue.
And he goes on to offer real life solutions.
Torinus buys health care for his employees at a total cost less than half the cost the State of Wisconsin incurs for its employees. Torinus and Serigraph employees continuously live and breath the answers to keeping heath care costs down and value up. Again I say, why isn’t this guy at the Summit?
(Well, I know why - as a septuagenarian, Torinus is preparing to ski the Birkebeiner this weekend - and bib pickup starts today!)
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Ok, so the insurer had to raise rates to preserve profits because they absorbed individual insureds. I haven't done the math to see how much of their 2.x billion profit could have covered all the individuals and the company earned less profit. But to me that is irrelevant. What is relevant in this discussion is why any health insurers or profits at all? What value does any health insurer add to the health care equation? It is obvious to me that a 30% overhead in the USA versus 10% in other countries shows we spend a lot of money pushing paper around and cost shifting. I recall the Anthem commercials in this market last year showing a father duct taping his abdomen because he didn't have health insurance to cover his hernia. Those commercials aren't on any more here. maybe Anthem really wanted those expensive individual policies until , just until, it started to cost them some money then "so long and good luck".
dave allen (Thu Feb 25 07:36:02 2010)
It's time we look SERIOUSLY at sustainability. I know that seems terribly off-topic here but it really is at the heart of this endless spiral of political rage.
Insurance is DESIGNED to do exactly what it is doing - so why is anybody surprised?
The insurance company will ALWAYS take in more than it pays out. That's the game and the house can't lose or it wouldn't be there. Plain and simple - whatever "we the premium payers" rack up in costs this year, will be billed for next year, plus the house spread.
So when we incur expenses we have to expect that we will pay for those expenses. Maybe not now - but certainly we will pay for them PLUS MORE in the future. That's the undeniable math and the reality of the concept.
There was a time (not so long ago) that people paid their own bills to the doctor and the doctors' rates never had to go up at the astronomical pace that they now accelerate ... when there was NO MIDDLEMAN taking a piece of the action.
Yes, bad things happened to good people "back in the day" and sometimes people lost a lot of money due to an illness, just as doctors had to suck it up once in a while too. But if you look at the insurance company's business model ... those times are much fewer than the times that a bill can be paid.
If we stop the noise, look at this as a whole rather than focusing on each individual situation, and try to find a REAL solution (rather than putting a bandage on the cancer growth), we'll find a system that is truly sustainable.
If we continue on our current path - we are doomed to more of the same ... the MIDDLE MAN will always pile additional expense on the process. It doesn't matter if the middle man sits in New York, Appleton, or Washington DC.
Jeff Riedl (Thu Feb 25 08:11:57 2010)
Why does insurance pay the provider directly? We should pay our own bills and be reimbursed by the insurance company.
Dean Weichmann (Thu Feb 25 11:36:54 2010)
Jo:
I think the counties and municipalities will be facing huge problems not only because of the Health Care premiums but all the other cuts that the state will be imposing. Budgets will become very difficult and we will have to address the major issue of wages, salaries, and benefits or have huge cuts in programs and increased taxes.
Oh, by the way, when did you start having political advertising for candidates on your blog? I thought this was a conservative informational site to discuss issues of the day. Are you planning to allow other candidates websites on your blog or just having Reid Ribble's on there?
Mike
Mike Thomas (Thu Feb 25 15:11:06 2010)
Jeff has the right idea. If folks paid their drs directly, costs would come down, as no middleman would be taking a cut. All anybody needs as far as insurance goes, is MAJOR MEDICAL, not "health" insurance.
emily matthews (Thu Feb 25 19:04:02 2010)
It seems like the people who responded here all seem to agree that insurance companies are not providing a net benefit to health care but they are necessary in our system where there are many forced layers between the patient and the provider and an opaque cost structure. Hooray, some agreement. Now, why can't Washington have the same level of agreement and figure out how to get rid of some of these layers?
dave allen (Sun Feb 28 07:38:30 2010)
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