What About Those Ads for Affordable Health Insurance?
by R. William Holland, Board Chair, United ProfessionalsLink to article
I, of all people, should know better. But every time I hear a radio or television blurb telling me that “affordable” health insurance can be mine by just calling some 800 number, I call and hear the same old story.
If you have to pay for your coverage without the benefit of a company contribution, like I do, you know very well just how expensive it can be. But you should also know it is more than that. And, why it is more is the same reason those ads for “affordable” coverage are so misleading. Here is the deal.
I wrote in Are There Any Good Jobs Left? Career Management in the Age of the Disposable Worker, that in a real sense the American system of health care coverage is one that distributes coverage to people when they need it least (i.e., when they are healthy and have a job) and keeps it from them when they need it most (when sick and out of work). The reason is quite simple. Health care is a private enterprise solution to a pubic issue. As such, it is a system motivated by profits more than health care. When the two conflict, guess which one wins—profits win every time.
Look at it this way. It is expensive to provide health care coverage to people who are already sick and without income. Companies that are motivated by profit certainly have no incentive to cover people who cannot pay and are already sick. They cannot make money behaving this way. This has historically been known in the business as the problem of adverse selection.
It is helpful to understand that private enterprise has played an important role in developing medicines and treatments for people. So this is not a plea to take the profit out of the system. It is a plea however to resist accepting the outcome of private enterprise as a substitute for public policy. When those two conflict (the public good and private enterprise) in a substantial way, action is required.
Fortunately, that is where we are today. As health care has gotten prohibitively expensive, private employers large and small are anxious to control the burden. As greater numbers of white collar workers feel the sting of job insecurity, they too see the issue as an appropriate focus of public policy. The choir of voices calling for reform is beginning to span the political spectrum.
But we are not there yet. Meanwhile understand that those ads for “affordable” health care are largely private enterprise initiatives that are willing to take you on only if you are relatively young and perfectly healthy. Furthermore, if you become covered and get sick, they are likely to look to jettison your coverage as fast as they can. Good businesses—ones that attract capital and provide good returns—look to control cost. Otherwise, those who run them join the ranks of the unemployed looking for relatively inexpensive coverage but probably won’t be able to find it.
So the next time you are tempted to respond to one of those ads, remember they are on your side as long as they can make a buck.
Tags: affordable-health-insurance, Are-There-Any-Good-Jobs-Left?-Career-Management-in-the-, health-care
April 26th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I appreciate your article. Yes, once some one is downsized, COBRA is prohibitally expensive. So are all of the other options.
Years ago, Evel Knievel bought gold because no one would insure him.
If we were all so fortunate, ha!
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:30 am
All your points are well made, but I wanted to add another. Like most “products” on today’s market we’re getting less for more. A gallon of ice cream is 56 ounces, a pound of coffee 13 ounces or less.
Health care is also packaged with less than expected. Read the fine print. Second surgery for the same disease within a certain time frame may not be covered. Anesthesia is often not included the 2nd time around. Home care following a hospital stay is often an out of pocket item - at full retail billing. The devil really is in the details of a health care policy.
While I’m thrilled that the chorus of those who want to change the healthcare system is growing, it still takes a heck of a long time to make its way from us to the policy makers.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Your addition to my comments were “spot-on.” We are for sure still a ways away from a public policy that will have relevancy to those currently without coverage.
You are doing the one important thing required to keep things moving–i.e., staying informed and commenting publicly. Thanks.
May 26th, 2007 at 10:54 am
THE MILLION PHONE MARCH TO ENACT A REAL MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT
Get every person that you can to call Walmart at 1 800 WALMART, Eckerd at 800-325-3737, CVS at 888 607-4287, and Walgreens at 800 289-2273 and Demand a real prescription drug benefit. Tell the person in the public relations department “Unless you get your CEO to get the congress and the pResident to enact a repeal of the means test in Medicare Part B, a rollback of the monthly premium of Medicare Part B to 60 dollars a month and cancel Bush’s tax cuts to the wealthy above $200,000 a year of income, which should help pay for this new benefit and place a simple prescription drug benefit covering 80 percent of medication in Medicare Part B, with no means test, no extra premium, no extra deductible, no coverage gap and no late sign up penalties, I will never buy any consumer products in your pharmacy again and I will never buy any medications from your pharmacy ever again.”
Only If you cannot switch your drug purchases from any of these pharmacies then when you call the 4 pharmacy chains, tell the pharmacy chain that you cannot switch from, I will not buy any consumer products from your stores until they get the CEO to get the Republican party to get a real prescription drug benefit as described above. Then continue to get your medications from the chain you remain stuck with. Then tell the other 3 pharmacy chains that you will buy nothing from them.
Do this for yourself, your parents and grandparents.
This will prove more effective than merely calling your congressman or woman because you will pressure the donors to Republican and conservative and moderate Democratic officeholders to get what we want or they lose millions of people’s business and their customers money.
I hope you will join me in one of the largest economic movements for social justice.
Thank you.
Chairman, Liberal Democratic party of the United States. http://www.dmocrats.org