Left In Lowell

Michael of WonkNOT! had this really insightful piece (go read the whole thing) on the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation summit (a summit based on the study commissioned by the Foundation that I pointed out here). Sitting in his seat “fuming,” he has this to say:

Gov. Romney’s speech was accompanied by a Powerpoint. In one of his first slides he said that his entire plan was based upon some assumptions. #3 of the 4 assumptions was that private health coverage was better than public. STOP RIGHT THERE! Someone’s got to question this. In multiple studies over multiple years, people have shown that Medicaid and Medicare are better run, with lower admin costs than the private sector. Furthermore, the ultimate test of quality is what you get- I robust and comprehensive coverage offered by the government (Medicaid) is surely better than a cheap, high deductible (he proposed up to $1000) plans. My favorite of these now on the market is Tonik, which is offered by Blue Cross in California and marketed to Extreme Youth. Its high deductible and covers little. NY state has also been offering high deductible low cost plans for the past few years and they’ve had few bites.

It’s true - we get little bang for our current buck. As this SFGate.com article points out, we pay almost $5000 per person per year for health care. That includes private statistics. However, the other industrialized countries spend less and get more. “Canada, for example, spends about 60 percent less per person than the United States but has longer life expectancies.”

How long before this fact permeates into the general populace? The numbers can be kind of thick to wade through, but the media could be explaining it more often and better. Say it with me: private health care in the US is more expensive and less effective than Canada’s so-called “socialist” medicine that everyone (including my Canadian-citizen father) seems to abhor.

Of course, the private insurers don’t want you to know this. Because while employers know that they are losing ground in competition with other countries because of health care costs and might welcome other options, the health care industry will fight tooth and nail to keep their status quo.

So it’s no surprise that even though Michael says, “Until Tues, I didn’t believe this [bias] would be the case - I have huge respect for the BCBS Foundation leadership…” he also was “left underwhelmed.” Just another big industry protecting its bottom line - I don’t know why anyone is ever surprised anymore. Talk of universal health care and that health care is a right due all citizens is a threat to these institutions. I suspect we’ll see more fighting before we’re through with this debate in Massachusetts.