Post from marvhagedorn at CHUMLY
Not sure my comments on recent Healthcare Insurance Exchanges were seen on my Facebook page, so will repost them here:
The issue that brought us to "Obamacare" (aka the ACA bill) was that we can no longer afford to continue on the same path we are on for healthcare, we can't continue to do what we've always done, we need a new process. Prices are going up for care by ~2.5% per year... we (private citizens, employers and states) have run out of room to continue these increases.
Obamacare has changed everything, I believe for the worse as it doesn't focus on cost drivers, as well as included mandates for a Federally approved, or run, Healthcare Insurance Exchange program in each State. A resource that would allow a consumer to "shop" for insurance that would fit their situation is a good idea, think of it like an Orbitz website for airline tickets. That's not a bad idea and would create more competition to provide the best prices for the consumers... that said, the Obamacare bill creates many federal strings within the Healthcare Exchange program for it to be "approved" that cause me grave concern over it's cost to our citizens in the long run. First and foremost, it will add ~100,000 more people on the Idaho's Medicare program at costs in the hundreds of millions in state revenue that we don't have nor can afford. It doesn't resolve the cost component of the delivery of healthcare, yet creates another level of bureaucracy that does not address the problem of availability or quality.
I can see value in a properly set up Healthcare Insurance Exchange, but not as a Federal or State run program and certainly not with the use of funds authorized for grants within the Obamacare bill... not when the Idaho State Legislature and Executive branch were the first in the nation to stand tall in opposition to the ACA bill and elected to sue the feds over its implementation. What kind of message do we send the courts when on one hand we are in a legal battle to overturn the bill, while having our other outstretched hand asking for these grants to implement the Obamacare requirements? (Set forth in an arbitrary timeline within the same bill we are trying to overturn!)
I have been studying this issue for months and now have spent the 7 hours yesterday drinking from a firehose learning about the requirements set forth in the bill and the efforts now underway within the Dept. of Insurance and Dept. of Health and Welfare to meet those requirements. I don't see us focused on the issue of cost, delivery, availability and quality to our citizens, rather an effort to meet deadlines and directives in a bill the majority of us believe to be unconstitutional. In a bill that is now before the Supreme Court where it could be overturned. In a bill that all but one of the current Presidential candidates for the 2012 election have vowed to undo. I have concerns that we are trying to create a silk purse out of a pigs ear by rushing to meet the deadlines within this bill and not building what Idaho needs to meet it's challenges of providing good healthcare for Idahoans in the future. If Healthcare Exchanges are a good thing, then let's see a non-profit, or for-profit, business plan for a self sustaining program that can be taken to a bank that would provide a loan or could be bonded to support... I see the state playing a role in some sort of capacity ensuring all providers are treated equally so to provide a level playing field, but not running this program ourselves.... no, this is something the private sector can do much better than government.
We also need to ask Doctors, hospitals, insurance carriers and all those involved in the process of providing healthcare to "open the kimono" enough so that each can understand the others roadblocks to working together to provide cost effective, quality healthcare available to the vast majority of the public.... while still enabling those businesses providing those services to still make a reasonable profit and serve their communities.
Can it be done?
http://chumly.com/n/c91482
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