A History of Single Payer Health Care in the United States
Since the early part of the twentieth century various organizations and politicians have tried to pursue legislation for a single payer health care system in the United States. The private market has grown during that time to cover over 175 million Americans through our employer sponsored system and another 25 million with individual coverage. However, there are still 35 million to 50 million Americans (depending on who is doing the counting) today without insurance. The single payer lobby has been hard at work for the past 60 years, and especially the last 20 years, building their case for such a system. With the 2008, 2010 and 2012 elections looming, single payer seems more probable than ever.
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Bridging the 'GAP' Changing Contracts and Benefit Structures Make Supplemental Products More Applicable to HDHP Plans
Consumer driven health care, and HSA’s in particular, are powerful tools for containing cost increases in medical insurance. However, in the worksite market, especially in the blue-collar segments of that market, HSA’s are not always applicable. Over the last few years supplemental carriers have redesigned GAP, critical illness and accident products to address more effectively the out-of-pocket costs borne by employees with high deductible plans. Having supplemental products underneath a HDHP is now a viable alternative for some accounts. This article explains the evolution of those products, their application to HDHP’s and finally their relevance to medical brokers in terms of marketing and evaluating alternative plans. It seems counter-intuitive, but some employers are realizing large annual savings by going to a HDHP and providing the underlying supplemental GAP, critical illness and accident coverage. The cost differential between the traditional medical plan and the HDHP is more than enough to pay for the supplemental products. Read more »
Maximizing Returns from Benefit Investments - Towers Perrin 2002 Study
Respondents (to the survey) gave their companies the lowest marks at the most basic employee interaction level – getting employees to understand the cost and value of their health benefits Read more »
Pharmaceutical Importation: Logical, Legal, Safe
Pharmaceutical costs, especially those for brand name, maintenance drugs, have been a primary driver of health costs and, in turn, health insurance costs, for well over a decade. Interestingly, the costs for these drugs vary widely around the world and are on average 44% higher in the United States than elsewhere. 44%! Countries with centralized, single-payer health systems are able to negotiate lower prices for drugs than are the myriad of insurance companies in the US. However, the lost revenue from lower prices paid by the single-payer countries is simply shifted to payers in the US. Effectively, the US is subsidizing the research and development ventures of the drug companies more than their single-payer counterparts. Given free markets, this is not a sustainable business model. Read more »
