|
Return Market-Driven Single Payer takes Washington out of the Picture
By George Swan, MPH – 1 August 2007
Hardly a day goes by without yet another tweak from Congress to try and patch up the bolted together mess of a healthcare system we have to deal with everyday. This broadcast from Blue Cross Blue Shield is an example:
U.S. Targets Healthcare Fraud, Abuse
New Medicare task force wins 3rd conviction of 2007
Law enforcement authorities are stepping up an attack on healthcare fraud that they say costs taxpayers more than $60 billion each year. FBI officials recently reinforced their commitment to crack down on medical companies that send phony bills or provide excessive treatments, pointing to 2,400 investigations in 2006 and warning that a fresh spate of cases is on the way, according to the Washington Post. (Johnson, Washington Post, 7/19)
» Read more
Cigarette-Tax Hike Would Fund Kids' Healthcare
Congress is poised to enact the biggest increase in decades
The plan moving through Congress to provide health insurance for more children in low-income families is highlighting a pointed question: Are cigarette smokers the only people left in America for whom politicians think it's fine to raise taxes? The health program, created in 1997, is up for renewal this year, and Democrats are pushing to extend benefits to more children. Many Republicans, with an eye to next year's elections, want to support the expansion. And that means buying into huge increases in tobacco taxes, reports the Los Angeles Times. (Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, 7/26)
» Read more
House Democrats Offer Child Health Plan
House Democrats would rely less on tobacco taxes than the Senate would and more on cuts to Medicare insurers to pay for a proposed $50 billion expansion of a children's health insurance program. The proposal, introduced recently, also would eliminate a 10 percent cut in the reimbursement rate for doctors who treat Medicare patients that is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. Instead, the legislation would give doctors a 0.5 percent increase in their reimbursement rates each of the next two years when they treat Medicare patients, the Associated Press reports. (Freking, Associated Press, 7/24)
» Read more
It’s time to take Washington out of the picture by implementing a market-driven system of single payer universal healthcare state by state, beginning with Colorado. The 208 Commission for Healthcare Reform is currently reviewing ideas from 31 proposals submitted last April. Proposals that expand Medicaid simply perpetuate the headaches, shortfall of provider payments, deficits in quality of medical services, and the high overhead caused by the anachronism of a 3rd party multi-payer (3PMP) insurance industry.
The 3PMP system was created by a fluke, following WWII, when the government capped wages and allowed employers to offer pre-tax healthcare benefits to employees. We are not stuck with this system no matter what the vested interests say.
Colorado Health Services Plan (CHSP) is the only single payer proposal currently under consideration by the 208 Commission. It is the only proposal that reduces costs while providing 100% coverage of all residents with a comprehensive healthcare benefits package. By creating one single risk pool, providers in private practice can be paid a fair fee for service, no longer have the hassle factor of 3PMP, and gain the benefit of an integrated healthcare system focusing on improving the health status of our entire state.
Employers gain the advantage of delinking insurance from employment. They no longer have to stand between employees and 3PMP multifarious cost-cutting actuaries. Costs for the vast majority of employees, as a percentage of income, would be far less than what they pay now. Employees would have a portable insurance plan they can take from job to job, and that covers them between jobs.
Implementation of the Colorado Regional Healthcare Information Organization (CORHIO) could establish an Administrative Services Organization that would process claims and payments at a fraction of the cost of 3PMP, and a confidential data repository would facilitate a giant leap in quality healthcare. Public health services would benefit from vastly enhanced population data. Providers and consumers would have the advantages of transparency and truly-informed consent to cost-effective diagnosis and treatment.
Preliminary evaluation by Lewin Group shows a savings of $1.7 billion dollars for CHSP to cover everyone, compared to as much as $1.2 billion additional expense from the other proposals. It’s hard to imagine what the Washington bureaucrats would do with their time if they no longer had our healthcare system to jerk around. It’s time to put them out of business and heal our wounds with a state-managed, market-driven, single-payer universal healthcare system.
George D Swan, MPH
180 Poplar Street – Unit I
Denver CO 80220
|
