Keeping Up with the Joneses Can Put You Behind

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Healthcare - large companies - driving prices

Jim,

I agree - I fear the consequences of my family being w/o employer provided Healthcare Insurance.

I feel for you, I have no children and in some manner am lucky that I do not have the experience of direct worry about their futures.

We pay cash for my Childs pediatrician visits - many of the Doctors in our area would except 'New' patients with our Employer provided Insurance plan.

I do not understand this sentence, did you leave a "not" out before "except"?

Doctors know they make more money from Patients with the more generous Insurance plans. As long as there are lots of people with these types of plans the Medical Industry can target their pricing/offering to this crowd. The Heck with the rest of humanity.

I believe what all this will ultimately boil down to is the "rest of humanity" versus doctors, and I surmise that it will not be the humanity of doctors that ultimately results in more or all US citizens having real exposure to heath care services. It is possible it could be otherwise, but it will not happen.

The insurance plans that drive up the cost of Medical Care. Generous Medical Insurance plans have allowed/encouraged Medical care costs to Sky rocket.

I believe heath insurance, for all the good that can be said about it, is a major part of the whole problem--not just because of whatever it costs to manage the claims--but because the generosity of many plans for the past 40 years in my personal experience have removed the patient from serious direct impact of the cost of health care. The financial triangle in health care has been: provider-->insurance companies. Actually you can quickly discern that is not a triange, but a straight line. Health care exists because there are patients--no other reason. But I will aver that in doctors' (some significant majority) minds, patients exist so that they can ply their trade and be compensated as they feel appropriate for their intelligence and undoubted hard work to become doctors. This mentality, which I firmly believe is pervasive, is the clearest example of putting the cart (doctors) in front of the horse (patients). I hope that is a realistic analogy. Patients have only been the means to the end for those wishing to make big bucks--and I fully recognize some patients definitely receive benefits worth something.

I just can't see a future where Medical costs are brought under control by a single payer Nationalized system run by the Federal Government (an ultimately controlled by a voting public - w/o any sense for fiscal discipline).

I am trying to figure out why the truth of what you said has made me laugh out loud 2 or 3 times. Perhaps the perverseness in my thinking allows me to see humor in your realistic assessment. To me, what you state is a perfect conundrum (to invoke my Greenspanian side). Your statement challenges me to offer something that would perhaps contradict it.

I aver politicians are interested in two things--their own welfare and getting re-elected. In order to get elected or re-elected they must lie to the people who may elect them who are concerned individually mostly about their own welfare as it may be affected by lawmakers. As long as this paradigm holds, then your last quoted statement will probably hold.

I am not a true student of financial history (so please no one jump down my throat--just correct me if worth your time), but if one takes the FOMC chairmen Arthur Burns or Wm. Miller, who some claim were effete with regard to the inflation of the late 70's, who were then succeeded by George Volcker who had the fortitude to do what was needed to WIN (whip inflation now), then this may be a worthy example. Even though Carter was elected, he appointed Volcker who, despite what misery whipping inflation caused (compared to the misery inflation was causing or would cause if left unchecked), did what had to be done. I put this forth to offer a little hope to those who think government cannot do much good (and I am mostly in that crowd--but anarchy would be worse). Occasionally someone in government is capable of biting the bullet and pulling off something really hard. I know Volcker wasn't elected, but he definitely serves as an example that at least once, someone from deep in the bowels of government raised his head and did the right thing. You know politicians are not bound by whatever they say in order to get elected. This is the only hope I see that someday when things are so rotten--say with health care--then hopefully in 51% of those elected, if humanity exists in them, they will do the right thing for everyone. I had rather bet on the market going up in the next three months, but if such a scenario as I wildly imagine does not take place then the deeper this country gets into a black hole. I do wish I could be more positive for your sake and everyone else who have children.