Obama holds health care summit | HHS does too
Obama holds meeting with Congress about health care
President Obama has initiated a health care summit with Democrats and Republicans from Congress at the Blair House in order to create a bipartisan consensus on what is supposed to be done about health care reform.Some Republicans were receptive, others weren’t. Thus far, two issues seem to have emerged – that the health care system as it stands is unfair to consumers, and that the U.S. Government cannot afford to begin picking up the tab.The usual suspect in bankruptcies is medical bills, causing 7 of 10 bankruptcy filings, and one of the most common things sending people looking for payday loans.
McCain and Obama trade barbs
Some of the quotes from the proceedings, from MSNBC, indicate verbal sparring between Sen. John McCain (R – AZ) and Obama.
“Let me just make this point, John, because we’re not campaigning anymore. The election is over.” — Obama
“I’m reminded of that every day.” – McCain
Republicans strongly contend that market solutions are the better course, which seems to be consensus in other circles. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal upholds that contention, and two of the authors of the piece are professors of Business and Stanford and Columbia. The spending patterns of government seem unhinged, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are on the precipice of insolvency, and a foreign policy in desperate need of review. (One seems to recall not one, but two wars going simultaneously.) The Senate and the House are currently exploring the possibility of lifting the monopoly exemption that health insurance companies currently enjoy.
Meanwhile, the HHS grills insurance execs
On Wednesday, The Department of Health and Human Services brought a selection of health insurance CEOs to a meeting, as per this article from ABC News. HHS head Karen Sebelius invited the heads of five major insurers to ask them about the nature of higher costs.CEOS were given a hiding about compensation of executives, such as lavish bonuses and vacations, like WellPoint, Inc. spending $ 37 million in 2007 and 2008 on retreats for executives. Rates increased almost 40% for some subscribers.
The rate increase was attributed to already rising cost and irrespective of executive compensation. The increase in costs were also attributed to many younger insurance purchasers dropping coverage, and the remaining customers being elderly (the elderly are more prone to illness than the young) and because of the increased costs of caring for more elderly subscribers, a health insurance carrier would be forced to raise rates to stay solvent. Anthem Blue Cross, a subsidiary of WellPoint Inc. claimed to lose $ 10 million or more only in California last year.That aside, a company that can afford to spend $ 30 million on executive retreats doesn’t need a cash advance from it’s customers.
How to pick what to do for the sick
It would appear that the Washington strategy is to throw money at the problem, instead of dealing with the causes of the rising costs.So far, few outlets have reported on the cause of rising health care costs. The cause could lie in more insurance claims and tort suits, perhaps the cause is in the greater amount of paperwork and staff needed for insurance company filings and medical records, but it appears that the symptoms are being treated in lieu of the disease.