Insurance Quotes & Advice

President-elect Barack Obama and his team will be next in line to try to fix the nation’s bloated and costly healthcare system.  Despite the fact that the government is pouring out money at a torrential pace to try to save the financial system, one of the stated goals of the incoming administration is a massive overhaul of a healthcare system which has left over 45 million Americans uninsured.

Former Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle has been nominated as Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.  If confirmed, Daschle will become Obama’s point man in the effort to reform healthcare in this country.

Something needs to be done soon because according to reports from the Government Accounting Office, Medicare is set to become insolvent sometime in 2019.  Healthcare cost have been spiraling out of control for decades, far outpacing inflation.

While many politicians are opposed to the idea of a socialized medicine, having 45 million Americans without healthcare insurance is unacceptable for a nation of our stature.  Since emergency rooms must provide care for any person regardless of insurance, much of the burden has fallen on state budgets which are becoming increasingly hard pressed in the wake of disruptions to the municipal bond market over the past year.

Thus far only one state has instituted mandated universal coverage, Massachusetts, and despite paying lower costs for emergency room visits, the state is quickly finding that costs are much higher than was predicted.  Still it can be considered a partial success as the number of uninsured in the state has shrunk dramatically.

Hopefully the new administration can learn from the trials and errors that Massachusetts is currently undergoing in crafting a system that is both cost effective and all encompassing which can provide affordable healthcare to every American.

The problems with the U.S. healthcare system have been building for decades, the bloated and inefficient system leaves more than a sixth of the population uninsured.  The rest have to keep up with insurance premiums which significantly outpace inflation year after year.

It doesn’t take a P.H.D. to figure out that our current healthcare system is unsustainable, yet the government has ignored the problem for far too long, leaving it in the hands of a future generation.  Well, the future is pretty much on us now and the new administration is going to have to deal with it.

In about ten years, Medicare goes bankrupt and if nothing is done soon, a significant portion of the population will be severely impacted.  The incoming administration has pledged to address the problems but it will be extremely difficult.

Reforming the healthcare system isn’t going to be quick or cheap.  There couldn’t be a worse time for such a massive undertaking with the federal government undergoing record debt to deal with the financial crisis.

The healthcare industry has already put forth it’s proposal for mandated universal coverage but that only addresses one side of the equation, insurance.  The other, half which is the actual cost of medical care needs to be addressed as well, otherwise the government will just end up paying an arm and a leg for subsidized health insurance.

For the amount of money the government is already spending on healthcare, there is no good reason why this country has over 50 million people uninsured.  If we take a look at other nations’ healthcare systems as a comparison, I think we can definitively say that our government isn’t getting it’s money’s worth.

Hopefully the incoming government can change all that but it’s going to be an uphill battle, especially in this economic climate.

The health insurance industry recently brought forth a proposal that favors mandated universal coverage.  Massachusetts is currently the only state at the moment which mandates universal coverage. 

Under the industry proposal, health plans participating in the individual health insurance market would be required to offer coverage to all applicants as part of a universal participation plan in which all individuals are required to maintain health insurance.

Health plans also said that premium support for moderate-income individuals and broad spreading of risk are necessary to promote affordability and maintain premium stability in the individual health insurance market.

The big issue for the industry is the coverage of pre-existing conditions.  By mandating coverage, individuals can’t wait until they get sick before they purchase coverage and passing off the costs to those who are already paying.

However, we still come to the issue of affordability, with so many people living at poverty levels, universal coverage will mean large government subsidies.  As Massachusetts is already finding out, that expense is much more than they thought it would be originally and are struggling to find ways to pay for their program.

Until the issue of rising medical costs is dealt with, a nationwide universal health system is impractical.  With the government facing an increased debt load from the financial crisis, finding the money to fund such an endeavor will likely be a problem.

But with the growing public support for universal coverage, that doesn’t mean the government won’t try it anyway.