Michael Moore: Why the Current Bills Don't Solve Our Health Care Crisis

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



Michael Moore
Oscar and Emmy-winning director

Posted: September 29, 2009

Why the Current Bills Don't Solve Our Health Care Crisis

Co-authored with Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee


Now we know why they've stopped calling this health care reform, and started calling it insurance reform. The current bills advancing in Congress look more like rearranging the deck chairs on the insurance Titanic than actually ending our long health care nightmare.

Some laudable elements are in various versions of the bills, especially expanding Medicaid, cutting the private insurance-padding waste of Medicare Advantage, and limiting the ability of the insurance giants to ban and dump people who have been or who ever will be sick.

But, overall, the leading bills and the President's proposal are, like the dog that didn't bark, more notable for what is missing.

Here are 13 problems with the current health care bills (partial list):

1. No cost controls on insurance companies. The coming sharp increases in premiums, deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, etc. will quickly outpace any projected protections from caps on out-of-pocket costs.

2. Insurance companies will continue to be able to use marketing techniques to cherry-pick healthier, less costly enrollees.

3. No restrictions on insurance denials of care that insurers don't want to pay for. In case you missed it, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee uncovered data on the California Department of Managed Care website recently that found six of the biggest California insurers rejected, on annual average, more than one-fifth of all claims every year since 2002. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/why-the-current-bills-don_b_302483.html

[ProSense]

1. Also posted in GDP. The 13 problems are addressed in these PDFs

Controlling Health Care Costs

Public Health Insurance Option

Consumer Protections and Insurance Market Reforms

Delivery System Reform

Protecting Program Integrity by Preventing Waste, Fraud and Abuse

Guaranteed Benefits

Strengthening Medicare

Improving the Medicare Part D Drug Program

Maintaining and Improving Medicaid

[enlightenment]

2. Well, those are nice, but I don't really see them addressing

the majority of the 13 concerns of the OP's article.

Most of the fact sheets deal with Medicare and Medicaid - even the one's that are not specifically titled as such. There doesn't seem to be one addressing the cost of premiums; just a line (in more than one sheet) about 'capping annual out-of-pocket spending for individuals and families so that no one faces bankruptcy from health costs ever again'.

That line is very both vague and disingenuous, and has nothing to do with controlling how much insurance companies can charge for premiums, co-pays, and the rest.

There is also a line about 'new requirements on plans will ensure that they keep costs down and pass on savings' and another that indicates that the insurance companies won't be allowed to charge more than a 2:1 ratio for age.

Neither of those tells me anything about what the insurance companies will be allowed to charge - in reality.

The Benefits Packages described, which are clearly stipulated, tiered levels of coverage, supports the contention that there will be no 'single standard of care' (from the OP's article).

The only reference that I saw to controlling drug prices that was not related to Medicare/Medicaid benefits was a line that said drug and device companies would have to disclose how much they give to doctors to encourage them to prescribe their drugs (or devices). Nothing in there to suggest price controls.

I could go on, but why? The argument is the same as it has been from the outset - the merits of a single-payer, nationalized system of health care versus a partial reform of the health insurance industry.