Like Health Insurance CEOs, Ryan Wants You to Have More "Skin in the Game"
When you look closely at GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's proposals to restructure Medicare, it's clear he agrees with many health insurance company CEOs that Americans -- especially older Americans -- don't have enough "skin in the game" when it comes to medical costs. If his proposal to largely privatize Medicare becomes a reality, those not already 55 and older will be putting far more "skin in the game" than current Medicare beneficiaries do, and they'll be required to peel off increasing amounts of skin every year for the rest of their lives.
I can't tell you how many times I heard my former CEO and other industry executives say that, in addition to the ever-increasing cost of a stay in the hospital, new drugs and new medical technology, a big reason why premiums keep going up is because those of us who make a tiny fraction of what they make are not paying enough out of our own pockets (i.e., "skin"
for medical care.
They use that rather crude term when they talk to Wall Street financial analysts and policymakers to justify their strategy of moving more and more of us into what they euphemistically refer to as "consumer-directed" health plans but which in reality are high-deductible plans that require us to pay far more of our own money for medical care than we have had to pay in the past.
Ryan would change Medicare from what is known in industry jargon as a "defined benefit" plan to a "defined contribution" plan. Medicare beneficiaries would no longer have the assurance of knowing that the government would always pay the lion's share of the cost of coverage (defined benefit). Instead, the government would give them a set amount of money in "premium-support" payments (defined contribution) every year to buy coverage from private insurers. (The 2011 version of Ryan's proposal would replace the traditional Medicare program entirely by private insurance plans. In the 2012 version, traditional Medicare would remain an option.)
more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/like-health-insurance-ceo_b_1810641.html