America’s Medical Insurance Cartel is the reason that America’s healthcare cost is twice that of other industrialized countries while the overall quality is half. The cartel is bankrupting our country.
According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. ranks 15th in infant mortality and 54th overall. Since 1947, when President Harry Truman tried to implement universal healthcare, the AMA and now the Medical Insurance Cartel have selfishly battled any real competition in the medical industry. If the United States is truly a moral and religious country, cost effective and high quality healthcare should be a right for every citizen.
U.S. healthcare is a $2 trillion industry lead by for-profit companies, an exception to the global norm. Americans say that they are worried about socialized medicine yet over 50 percent of healthcare is provided or subsidized by the U.S. government. A leading cost driver is America’s medical insurance cartel.
The medical insurance cartel is not unlike the oil industry cartel, OPEC. Exemption from anti-trust laws has allowed medical insurers to slice, price, and dice the healthcare marketplace to the advantage of corporate officers and stockholders but to the disadvantage of consumers. U.S. antitrust laws were minimized in mid-1980, under influence of the University Of Chicago School Of Economics and are blamed for the U.S. loss of economic supremacy in the world, according to Revitalizing Antitrust in Its Second Century.
The concept of supply and demand does not exist in American healthcare. The greater the supply of physicians produces a greater demand on services. It is the physician that drives and produces the demand, not the consumer. This is referred to as fee-for-service medicine. The financial incentive is to be paid for all services while having control of the demand for those services. An alternative to fee-for-service is a capitation payment. This is where medical providers are paid a specific amount per patient/consumer and are rewarded if they keep the patient healthy and satisfied.
In 1929, teachers in Dallas were one of the first to organize their healthcare around a non-profit consumer benefit organization which evolved into Blue Cross and Blue Shield. But, today over 70 percent of U.S. healthcare is for-profit. The glut of inefficiently managed technology, for-profit insurance companies, and a fee-for-service financial incentive has propelled U.S. medical costs to over 16 percent of America’s GDP. With the U.S. government paying half of the medical bill, America is heading for bankruptcy.
Consumerism in U.S. healthcare is dead. The AMA, the Medical Insurance Cartel lobbyist, and their public relations have sold Americans the “Iodine Theory” that the higher the cost, the higher the quality. Advertisers have done a good job to promote this theory. If it burns your wallet, it must be high quality healthcare. Just like a selling point for the medicine Iodine: “burns to prove that it kills germs.” In reality, lower quality medicine produces higher cost. A cardiologist doing just a few heart procedures per year is much less efficient with much lower quality outcomes at a greater cost.
Money drives healthcare policy and politics. Political contributions to our legislators are the reason why America’s healthcare is a for-profit and unregulated cartel. According to OpenSecret.org, over half a billion dollars have flowed to political candidates in the past decade. Medical cartel lobbyist, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and millionaire medical insurance and hospital executives donate hundreds of millions of dollars each year. United Health Group, Aetna, and Wellpoint (formerly Blue Cross) are the largest for-profit medical insurers. Executive salaries range from $10 million to over $40 million with bonuses doubling the number. The top recipient in the U.S. Congress of the cartel’s monies is Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Conservative Democrat from Arkansas.
In the industrialized world, there are non-socialized and market-driven approaches that are working successfully. A recent issue of the Wall Street Journal analyzed the new Dutch universal healthcare program that was implemented in 2006. In only a year, healthcare costs have gone down and quality measurements have gone up. The Dutch concept incorporates private insurer competition but mandates insurance for all. The Dutch government negotiated with drug makers to cut prices by 40 percent. The fee-for-service incentive has been eliminated.
In 2007, a Washington, D.C. based health think-tank, “Committee for Economic Development,” recommended scraping the present U.S. fee-for-service medicine — the more services, the more fees, in favor of a fixed-dollar credit for every American. Competition would drive price, satisfaction, and quality.
America’s medical insurance cartel has implemented a political smokescreen to protect their profitability. Eliminating the “Public Option” would be a financial windfall for the medical cartel. The “public option” debate should be a non-issue in that many States already successfully offer a “public option” in workers’ compensation insurance. The medical cartel offers many diversions to segment public opinion. For example, the issue of “abortion” should be taken off the table because the courts and science agree that the “Terri Schiavo Case” legally defined human life based upon a functioning brain. Another smoke screen is the issue of mandating “100-percent coverage.” This is just good medical economics to provide a level playing field and eliminate the “gaming.” Administrative costs for healthcare run by the U.S. government is two to three percent while the for-profits costs run 20-30 percent.
Current debate on implementing universal healthcare in the United States hinges on how effective the medical insurance cartel will be to overcome the consumer demand for universal quality healthcare at an affordable price. If America is truly a religious and moral country, universal high quality and affordable healthcare is simply the right thing to do.
(William Dodge has worked in the U.S. healthcare industry for 25 years. He has written for several healthcare publications. He can be reached via email at WiDodge@comcast.net.)
America’s Medical Insurance Cartel
America’s Medical Insurance Cartel is the reason that America’s healthcare cost is twice that of other industrialized countries while the overall quality is half. The cartel is bankrupting our country.
According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. ranks 15th in infant mortality and 54th overall. Since 1947, when President Harry Truman tried to implement universal healthcare, the AMA and now the Medical Insurance Cartel have selfishly battled any real competition in the medical industry. If the United States is truly a moral and religious country, cost effective and high quality healthcare should be a right for every citizen.
U.S. healthcare is a $2 trillion industry lead by for-profit companies, an exception to the global norm. Americans say that they are worried about socialized medicine yet over 50 percent of healthcare is provided or subsidized by the U.S. government. A leading cost driver is America’s medical insurance cartel.
The medical insurance cartel is not unlike the oil industry cartel, OPEC. Exemption from anti-trust laws has allowed medical insurers to slice, price, and dice the healthcare marketplace to the advantage of corporate officers and stockholders but to the disadvantage of consumers. U.S. antitrust laws were minimized in mid-1980, under influence of the University Of Chicago School Of Economics and are blamed for the U.S. loss of economic supremacy in the world, according to Revitalizing Antitrust in Its Second Century.
The concept of supply and demand does not exist in American healthcare. The greater the supply of physicians produces a greater demand on services. It is the physician that drives and produces the demand, not the consumer. This is referred to as fee-for-service medicine. The financial incentive is to be paid for all services while having control of the demand for those services. An alternative to fee-for-service is a capitation payment. This is where medical providers are paid a specific amount per patient/consumer and are rewarded if they keep the patient healthy and satisfied.
In 1929, teachers in Dallas were one of the first to organize their healthcare around a non-profit consumer benefit organization which evolved into Blue Cross and Blue Shield. But, today over 70 percent of U.S. healthcare is for-profit. The glut of inefficiently managed technology, for-profit insurance companies, and a fee-for-service financial incentive has propelled U.S. medical costs to over 16 percent of America’s GDP. With the U.S. government paying half of the medical bill, America is heading for bankruptcy.
Consumerism in U.S. healthcare is dead. The AMA, the Medical Insurance Cartel lobbyist, and their public relations have sold Americans the “Iodine Theory” that the higher the cost, the higher the quality. Advertisers have done a good job to promote this theory. If it burns your wallet, it must be high quality healthcare. Just like a selling point for the medicine Iodine: “burns to prove that it kills germs.” In reality, lower quality medicine produces higher cost. A cardiologist doing just a few heart procedures per year is much less efficient with much lower quality outcomes at a greater cost.
Money drives healthcare policy and politics. Political contributions to our legislators are the reason why America’s healthcare is a for-profit and unregulated cartel. According to OpenSecret.org, over half a billion dollars have flowed to political candidates in the past decade. Medical cartel lobbyist, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and millionaire medical insurance and hospital executives donate hundreds of millions of dollars each year. United Health Group, Aetna, and Wellpoint (formerly Blue Cross) are the largest for-profit medical insurers. Executive salaries range from $10 million to over $40 million with bonuses doubling the number. The top recipient in the U.S. Congress of the cartel’s monies is Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Conservative Democrat from Arkansas.
In the industrialized world, there are non-socialized and market-driven approaches that are working successfully. A recent issue of the Wall Street Journal analyzed the new Dutch universal healthcare program that was implemented in 2006. In only a year, healthcare costs have gone down and quality measurements have gone up. The Dutch concept incorporates private insurer competition but mandates insurance for all. The Dutch government negotiated with drug makers to cut prices by 40 percent. The fee-for-service incentive has been eliminated.
In 2007, a Washington, D.C. based health think-tank, “Committee for Economic Development,” recommended scraping the present U.S. fee-for-service medicine — the more services, the more fees, in favor of a fixed-dollar credit for every American. Competition would drive price, satisfaction, and quality.
America’s medical insurance cartel has implemented a political smokescreen to protect their profitability. Eliminating the “Public Option” would be a financial windfall for the medical cartel. The “public option” debate should be a non-issue in that many States already successfully offer a “public option” in workers’ compensation insurance. The medical cartel offers many diversions to segment public opinion. For example, the issue of “abortion” should be taken off the table because the courts and science agree that the “Terri Schiavo Case” legally defined human life based upon a functioning brain. Another smoke screen is the issue of mandating “100-percent coverage.” This is just good medical economics to provide a level playing field and eliminate the “gaming.” Administrative costs for healthcare run by the U.S. government is two to three percent while the for-profits costs run 20-30 percent.
Current debate on implementing universal healthcare in the United States hinges on how effective the medical insurance cartel will be to overcome the consumer demand for universal quality healthcare at an affordable price. If America is truly a religious and moral country, universal high quality and affordable healthcare is simply the right thing to do.
(William Dodge has worked in the U.S. healthcare industry for 25 years. He has written for several healthcare publications. He can be reached via email at WiDodge@comcast.net.)