Dear Cone Health: "The Money Traps in U.S. Health Care"

Did the largest generation of parents in American history

promise themselves healthcare benefits

their children won’t have enough money to pay for?

"Why does an appendectomy in Germany cost roughly a quarter what it costs in the United States?

Or an M.R.I. scan cost less than a third as much, on average, in Canada?

...In 2009, we spent $7,960 per person, twice as much as France,
which is known for providing very good health services.

And for all that spending, we get very mixed results — some superb,
some average, some inferior — compared with other advanced nations.

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients

…and never do harm to anyone

In every house where I come

I will enter only for the good of my patients

keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing

Hippocratic Oath

Healthcare Ethics: "The anatomy of a ripoff": If Ed Cone is on the board of Cone Health, and Jim Melvin thinks the merger is a great idea, how do they feel about this?

"...my teenage son was rushed by ambulance
...to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern after choking on a piece of turkey.

The care he received was appropriate; the bill was anything but.

The charges, in fact, were mind-boggling.

A statement the hospital sent to my insurance company
...showed that Good Samaritan billed $22,214.92
for a four-hour emergency room visit that included a physical exam,
sedation, endoscopy and extraction of the stuck food.

...it’s easy to think that he was seen less as a patient
and more as an ambulatory cash machine...

We must tear down the entire medical system in this nation

and imprison virtually all of the financial folks involved in it

-- especially Hospital-affiliated entities.

Karl

Even more astonishing, Aetna agreed to pay only $2,885.67 for the services
— just 13% of the bill — and the hospital settled for that amount.

...my son had a second choking episode two weeks after the first,
and the charges for his treatment at Somerset Hospital in Pennsylvania
were included on the same ...statement.

So I was able to compare bills for similar procedures at two emergency rooms.

What I learned was that the numbers printed on hospital bills
often bear no relation to reality.

That hospitals grossly inflate their charges,
expecting insurance companies to radically cut the bills
while hoping to wring bigger fees out of the uninsured.

That the bill inflation can include double-charging for procedures.

This sort of game-playing, where the intent is to catch "uninsured" people

and "gotcha" them into bankruptcy,

would be felonious in virtually any other line of business.

Karl

Medicare Accounting Ripoff?

"Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed on -- and passed by a vote of 99-0 -- a one-year extension of the so-called "doctor fix" for Medicare.

The result is almost certainly going to mean higher deficits and more debt piled on the backs of our children.

the Obama administration and congressional Democrats made matters worse by including the "savings" from that 23 percent cut in the cost estimates for the ObamaCare law. This allowed them to pretend that the reform cost less than $1 trillion over its first 10 years...

...Now, faced with having the cuts kick in on Jan. 1, Congress, unsurprisingly, has once again voted to postpone them for a year, at a cost of $15 billion.

But wait. Congress found a way to pay for it: It voted to reduce subsidies under the president's health reforms -- in 2014.

That's right. Congress will spend the money next year, but you needn't worry because it will reduce subsidies four years from now.

...So, four years from now...Congress will use that repayment to repay the money it borrowed to spend this year to avoid making cuts in a program that is trillions of dollars in debt.

Feeling better now?

If November's election meant anything, it was that the American people were fed up with business as usual in Washington.

If this latest Senate deal tells us anything, it's that business as usual is alive and well."

Michael Tanner

Does America’s healthcare industry maintain high profit margins by providing superior care and/or medicine, or by financing the political process with profits provided by patients?

You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment
in length, in weight or in measure.

Leviticus 19:35

Premiums jump 14 percent on Medicare private plans

Millions of seniors who signed up for popular private health plans through Medicare are facing sharp premium increases this year…

…premiums for Medicare Advantage plans offering medical and prescription drug coverage jumped 14.2 percent on average in 2010, after an increase of only 5.2 percent the previous year. Some 8.5 million elderly and disabled Americans are in the plans…

…Private fee-for-service plans, which offer a broad choice of doctors and hospitals, saw increases averaging 31.2 percent…

...Seniors who did not shop around for lower-priced coverage during open enrollment in the fall got hit with some of the biggest increases, averaging 22 percent…

…higher Medicare Advantage premiums for 2010 followed a cut in government payments to the private plans last year.

… bills pending in Congress call for even more cuts, expected to force many seniors to drop out of what has been a rapidly growing alternative to traditional Medicare.

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press

Why did 2007 US healthcare spending rise to $2.7 trillionfrom $2.1 trillion in 2006?

¶

White House signals openness to taxing workers' health benefits

Boston Globe, March 15, 2009

If Michelle Obama

worked with some very highly compensated hospital executives

and physicians susceptible to God Complex symptoms

who have been accused by others

of charging the government vast sums

as many elderly patient’s lives end

 

is it conceivable that the first family

may believe some in the medical industry

take advantage of taxpayer funded Medicare subsidies

and healthcare related tax deductibility

at the expense of other Americans?

 

 

Why did employer sponsored healthcare insurance premiums

rise 10 times faster than family income between 2001 and 2005?

 

Why have employee out of pocket healthcare expenses

more than doubled in the last decade?

 

How much should taxpayers pay for medical costs

to extend the life of a terminal patient for 3 months?

Why did 2007 US healthcare spending rise to $2.7 trillionfrom $2.1 trillion in 2006?

¶

White House signals openness to taxing workers' health benefits

Boston Globe, March 15, 2009

If Michelle Obama

worked with some very highly compensated hospital executives

and physicians susceptible to God Complex symptoms

who have been accused by others

of charging the government vast sums

as many elderly patient’s lives end

 

is it conceivable that the first family

may believe some in the medical industry

take advantage of taxpayer funded Medicare subsidies

and healthcare related tax deductibility

at the expense of other Americans?

 

 

Why did employer sponsored healthcare insurance premiums

rise 10 times faster than family income between 2001 and 2005?

 

Why have employee out of pocket healthcare expenses

more than doubled in the last decade?

 

How much should taxpayers pay for medical costs

to extend the life of a terminal patient for 3 months?

Would healthcare cost less if medical insurance wasn’t subsidized by tax breaks and regulated pricing mechanisms?

 

If Mr. Obama is to propose -- and find a way to pay for -- a broad expansion of health insurance,

he should reconsider his opposition to changing the preferential tax treatment

of employer-provided health insurance.

 

Why should some taxpayers without health insurance

subsidize the overly generous policies enjoyed by others?

 

From Fiscal Reality

Washington Post, Sunday, February 22, 2009; A18

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022101362.html

 

Would healthcare cost less if medical insurance wasn’t subsidized by tax breaks and regulated pricing mechanisms?

 

If Mr. Obama is to propose -- and find a way to pay for -- a broad expansion of health insurance,

he should reconsider his opposition to changing the preferential tax treatment

of employer-provided health insurance.

 

Why should some taxpayers without health insurance

subsidize the overly generous policies enjoyed by others?

 

From Fiscal Reality

Washington Post, Sunday, February 22, 2009; A18

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022101362.html