Rising cost of health care at the root of so many stories we cover

[Robbien]

In the daily and weekly rush of newspaper headlines, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the big picture— that overriding issue that seems to be at the heart of so many seemingly unrelated stories.

Our readers regularly see the headlines about school closings and cuts in educational programming, the loss of police services in our communities, massive state budget deficits, budget shortfalls at city hall, or local businesses shuttering their doors.

It can all seem unrelated, that is until you look below the surface. Then you begin to see the connection, to the skyrocketing cost of health care.

Take the school restructuring plan being developed by ISD 2142. While there are many factors leading to the district’s worsening financial picture, the rising cost of health care benefits for district employees is by far the most significant. A five-year financial analysis completed last year by Ehlers and Associates predicted that health care benefits alone would account for nearly 40 percent of the district’s overall increase in expenditures through 2013. Take away health care costs and the district would at least have a fighting chance to maintain community schools.

. . .

And while we may not read about it in the paper, the impact of health care costs is hitting most of us close to home. So many of the people I talk to every week have seen their own personal financial picture grow increasingly tenuous, in large part because of the cost of health coverage. I’m constantly surprised at how many people in our communities—solid, middle class folks— business owners and employees alike, are doing without health insurance or have policies with eye-popping deductibles that may provide coverage against medical bankruptcy, but little else. While many of these folks are getting by, they are just one illness or accident away from financial devastation. These same people routinely opt against clinic visits, even when their symptoms suggest they should see a doctor. When even a basic visit to a clinic can cost hundreds of dollars, more and more of us, myself included, rely on Google instead of health care professionals.

. . .

Conservatives are already howling at the possibility, of course, and we can expect to hear more from them as health care reform moves ahead in Washington. Frankly, it’s time for everyone, conservatives included, to acknowledge that a private, for-profit model of health care has proven to be unaffordable and unhealthy for a growing number of Americans and it’s unraveling the fabric of our communities.

President Obama promised a public option during the campaign and he drew a substantial amount of support from voters because of that promise. Despite the inevitable opposition from vested interests and ideologues alike, Obama and Democrats in Congress need to stand up to that vocal minority and keep the public option in the mix. Any reform that fails to do so isn’t worth the effort, because it won’t contain the skyrocketing medical costs that are eating away at the American Dream.

http://www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=5355

[snowdays]

1. k n r.

[Wednesdays]

2. K&R

:kick:

[unblock]

3. how many forclosures are due to no health insurance or too little health insurance?

or to employers cutting workers or workers pay because they're already paying so much in health insurance benefits?

[eridani]

4. In order to keep paying for private insurance for public employees--

--employee positions have to be cut. Get those insurance company monsters OUT of the picture entirely, and that will change.

[OneBlueSky]

5. much like the Bush administration itself, the U.S. healthcare system . . .

is, at root, a criminal enterprise of unimaginable proportions . . . for the privilege of maximizing profits by deciding who gets treated and how, and who gets coverage and how much they pay, the insurance companies are skimming a third or more of every healthcare dollar spent in this country . . .

in exchange these vampire corporations provide absolutely nothing -- NOTHING! -- that facilitates the provision of quality and affordable healthcare . . . quite the opposite, in fact -- and for this we permit them to take hundreds of billions of dollars every year that could and should be going to ensure that everyone receives the healthcare they need . . .

it's a crime as vast as the Universe itself, in that our puny human minds are too small to really grasp the enormity of it all . . .

[lildreamer316]

6. Kick

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

7. Costlier care is often worse care

From the New Yorker, Atul Gawande has written an extensive article on health care costs. His story expands on the for-profit and non-profit hospitals and on the private insurance and government insurance debates.

I think that it is worth the read, although it is long.

The Cost Conundrum