globalEyeNews
health insurance: in the globalEye

Wednesday, May 03, 2006
From "$Niche Pool" to the "Dead Pool" - aKa - "The Great Gravy Train Robbery"
"The facts are these: the health insurance Cash Cow Has Expired; the vast $niche pool is fast becoming the "Dead Pool"; the American healthcare consumers' pockets are empty, no longer able or willing to sustain the runaway-inflated healthcare costs and health insurance premiums that have resulted from years of network-wide gravy train riding......"

While millions go without health insurance (an everyday occurrence exploding into almost every income sector) and a major healthcare breakdown looms, the point that eludes most is that the crisis exists soley because network medical providers, across the board, have out-priced the market. In a mad effort to get an always bigger piece of the vast consumer $niche pool (pie), network costs have exploded beyond containment, beyond anyone's ability to pay. Universal (National) healthcare is just another name for a federal government bailout of the industry for the shortfall. For those who promulgate that overuse has lead to runaway costs, I'd say try living in the real life world of an overworked, overtaxed, overburdened, over child-cared, life-compressed middle income household of 3 or more for a few hours (Former Secretary of State, George P. Shultz).........

globalEyeNews.eXtra.health insurance
'Without reform, the U.S. health care system will hit the proverbial brick wall in the not-too-distant future. Health care costs and insurance premiums are rapidly increasing, making both insured and uninsured consumers worse off. After not wanting to touch health care reform with a 10-foot pole in the immediate post-Clinton era, policymakers are again confronting the fact that change is desperately needed. The direction of that change, however, is anything but settled. Does the solution lie in private markets, greater government involvement, or some combination of the two?" This New England Journal of Medicine extract from the Cato Institute publication Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care and How to Free aptly describes prevalent healthcare moods and trends in America. Indecision, apprehension, unclearness; bemused can be applied. In the news release below you will find why some experts believe open-market reform is a "blueprint for re-invigorating America's troubled health care sector."

............The facts are these: the health insurance Cash Cow Has Expired; the vast $niche pool is fast becoming the "Dead Pool"; the American healthcare consumers' pockets are empty, no longer able or willing to sustain the runaway-inflated healthcare costs and health insurance premiums that have resulted from years of network-wide gravy train riding; and both, healthcare consumers and providers, don't know where to turn for the next dollar. The trends are ominous. The healthcare industry at the top of the food chain, at the least, is unnerved and the American healthcare consumer is reeling. As with every hyper-inflationary market, the bubble will burst eventually (more than likely). The sad, disgraceful truth is, solemn oaths have been broken, trusts abused and the vital well-being of the American people has been feloniously compromised. The fix? The system may well have passed the point of no return; open-market reform, a moot point. Whether the case or not, a head on confrontaion with the issues at hand will require high doses of "inspired leadership" from Washington. Too much to hope for?
[globalEyeNews.opinion.health insurance] "

The Cato Institute: News Release

Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It

September 14, 2005

Media Contact: (202) 789-5200

Healthy Competition, a new book published today by the Cato Institute, provides a blueprint for re-invigorating America's troubled health care sector. Former Secretary of State George Shultz calls Healthy Competition "essential reading."

Michael F. Cannon, Cato's director of health policy studies, and Michael D. Tanner, Cato's director of health and welfare studies, explain how market competition makes products of ever-increasing quality available to an ever-increasing number of consumers.

They demonstrate how market competition can do the same for medical care and health insurance. The authors even show how encouraging competition.....More>>

Written at 3:27 AM by globalEyeNews.
0 comments