Would An Overhaul Hurt Health Care?

Reform Could Prompt Employers To Drop Plans, Choice Of Doctors Could Diminish

(CBS)  Today the President again insisted that his health care reform won't force you to switch plans or doctors.

"What I'm saying is the government is not going to make you change your plans under health reform," said Mr. Obama.

That's technically correct - but what the president didn't say is that reform could lead your boss to change your health care plan, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. Here's how: 160 million people are insured through work and their employer actually picks up most of the cost. Under the president's plan, Americans would be required to carry a certain level of coverage, which means many people would have to increase their insurance.

"Employer premiums will go up, and employers might respond by dropping coverage entirely," said Michael Cannon, with the Cato Institute. "So if you're one of those unfortunate workers then it will be a government policy that ousted you from your health plan."

And if you do choose a public plan, you may want to keep your favorite doctors but they may not want to keep you. Under government health care, they could be paid 20 to 30 percent less.

Today, Mr. Obama also scoffed at claims that a public plan would put private insurers out of business.

"If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality of health care, if they tell us that they are offering a good deal, then why is that the government, which they say can't run anything, is suddenly going to drive them out of business?" Mr. Obama asked.

The answer, critics say, is that the government has many tools to get an unfair advantage and undercut private companies.

" The government can subsidize its plan with tax revenue from other taxpayers," said Cannon. "The government can enact regulations that favor its plan over other private insurers."

In the end, the president argues that it's riskier to do nothing because rising health care costs have put employers on the brink of raising premiums or dropping health insurance altogether.

[erasmus111]

by jacklfuller June 24, 2009 7:38 AM PDT

It would not be medical school. We can only guess what the type of med school applicants would be in such a situation.


The med school applicants you will start seeing are the ones that care more about the PATIENTS and not the MONEY!

Where I live, the doctor cares about the patient. The doctor isn't following the insurance company or the governments orders. What the doctor says, goes.

[erasmus111]

by jacklfuller June 24, 2009 7:38 AM PDT

No one wants to spend four years in undergrad, four years in medical school, three years in specialty training and be paid government wages. Like my doc said, he would go into private business doing something else with his brain and motivation. It would not be medical school. We can only guess what the type of med school applicants would be in such a situation.


Your whole health care system, if that's what you want to call it, is CORRUPT. That doesn't just mean the insurance companies, but the doctors as well. The doctors are being over paid for a job they aren't doing. They follow the insurance companies orders. Of course the doctors are not going to want to continue, they are used to being paid ridiculous wages.

[sjc_1]

Sharyl Attkisson is fronting for the private insurance companies on this one. Put out some scare tactics, just like back in 1993 with the Harry and Louise ads. National Health Insurance as another option for rate payers will improve the system, not harm it.

[John_Merritt]

If a complete overhaul of all systems surrounding healthcare were instituted, health care delivery would actually improve. But it will come at a tremendous cost to everyone involved. The carrier, the consumer and the healthcare worker. Be careful what you ask for, because in this case many more may suffer if 'the perfect system' is created. Think about all the possibilities because I could easily write a book about it. Sign me: been there, done that.

[jacklfuller]

It seems the debate revolves around priorities. In the real world, where price is king, either we loose choice of which high quality services are available or we loose immediate access and have to suffer long wait times. If we try to force timely access, wide availability and low cost, then the number of highly trained, high quality service providers dwindles. The best people will avoid medicine like the plague because there is no compensation for their years of training and high expenses. No one wants to spend four years in undergrad, four years in medical school, three years in specialty training and be paid government wages. Like my doc said, he would go into private business doing something else with his brain and motivation. It would not be medical school. We can only guess what the type of med school applicants would be in such a situation.

In the single payer system, the problem becomes compensation and interference in the doctor-patient relationship by the Feds. Even in a program of moderate Federal involvement, which competes against private insurers and all their evils, the private for profit seeking companies will not be able to compete and will loose business to the government system and its lower cost but bureaucrat and politician infested involvement.

Insurance companies are bad enough but Fed interference goes beyond just haggling over money. It injects partisan politics into the treatment decision mix. Treatment decisions will have to be screened and approved by bureaucrats and politicians before the Feds pay for it, or, in some cases, allow it even if the patient can afford to pay for it himself, as happens in some Medicare cases now.

[jacklfuller]

My doc said American's have become used to, and demand, choice and availability in their health care at a low price. In the past, someone else has subsidized the cost, usually employers. He says that is why costs are so high. People actually use the service and seldom worry about who pays for it. He says that can't continue. The economics of the business can only provide two of the three. When the real cost of medicine is presented to the consumer, they choke. Only now, the politicians, sensing an opportunity to score political points, have taken the issue and are using it as a weapon against their opponents. They look at the health care system as a Christmas tree on which they hang all their idealogical wish lists. Instead of fixing the problem, they are making it worse.

[jacklfuller]

While at the Opthamologist yesterday, a man about fifty, I asked if he was twenty, faced with deciding his future, would he choose medicine again. He said no. He said he has four kids and has counseled them all to seek a different field. His concern, though, is about whether there will be enough doctors to care for him in his later years. Apparently other doctors feel the same as he and the word is getting out. The problem is the Federal government not sick people.

[jacklfuller]

I recently asked three doctors what they thought about the health care debate and each made a similar comment. They thought the system was decorating now and that increasing the Fed's presence in day-to-day operations would make it worse. I should note than none of the three, two specialists and one GP, are not wealthy men. All three are middle aged with over twenty years experience and in private practice.

[salmoc44]

"Reform Could Prompt Employers To Drop Plans, Choice Of Doctors Could Diminish"

The status quo of ever exploding costs will prompt many employers to drop plans. And, if one has no insurance, they won't be worried about their "choice of doctors".

[salmoc44]

If the private market really worked when it comes to providing affordable health care for Americans, there wouldn't be 50 million Americans without health care insurance.

[jeff-fla]

by ur_u_nuts June 23, 2009 5:45 PM PDT
I say make ALL the clowns in DC go under the same health care they want to put us under!!!!

That is what they want to do. Keep up.

[jsd330]

you will never get the same plan, check a Government employee's plan to that of a Congressmans or Senators bet you'll find a big difference.You will get a watererd down health care plan that you will end up buying supplemental insurance, just like medicare.

[skyk-2009]

For 60 years I've heard all the excuses they can come up with as to why we shouldn't have a public health plan. EVERY LAST one of them have been LIES! All this time I have watch as our Health Care System has sunken to the Worst in the World, costing us more than any other nation on the planet. I've also seen all other developed nations cover all their citizens and none of them have had to go to work not knowing if they or their families will be covered the next day. The LIES, the EXCUSES and the Greed has gone on long enough.

[jab232]

We already have severe rationing and restriction of choice. And congress will probably vote to perpetuate that. We all know the GOP (and some blue dog Democrats) are in the pockets of the big health insurance companies and the medical establishment. There are fifty million people uninsured. Sixty percent of the personal bankruptcies in this country come from health care costs. Tens of thousands undergo rescission, cutting off already paid on health insurance once you get an expensive illness.

Many of us resent the fact that congress, with its excellent public option plan of health care, is in the pockets of the big insurance and drug companies and the rich medical establishment. Let the private insurers with their million-dollar-CEOs (one made 24 million last year) compete by making available to everyone the same kind of health insurance plan congress already has.

[mars7578]

The healthcare industry have made their business unacceptable.Instead of trying to correct itself,it hired lobbists to try to get people to focus on the governmental intervention rather that save their business.By default,the government had to step in to stop a rapidly deteriorating condition . The root of the problem is the drive for profits.The answer is to regulate the return of the associated industries.They already set the price on the local provider and patient and now need to address the next level which is choking the rest of the system.

[Solarrays247]

Would An Overhaul Hurt Health Care?


Ask the millions of folks out there who have no health care insurance right now, or ask those who are under insured, ask them what they think?

Ask the millions of folks who did everything right, lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and therefore lost their health insurance....ask them what they think?

What happened to all the promises made by the insurance companies throughout the 1980's that the best way to contain costs was through HMO's and PPO's. Oh, was that before your CEO's became so terribly expensive?

This is a shameful period in our history when people's precious lives are only worth what the insurance companies demand.

I'd rather pay more taxes to help my neighbor live, then to pay for more damn oil wells in Iraq! Or to bail out the banks, only to have them turn around and bump up interest rates and credit limits against the very people that bailed them out of their financial distress.

Not even Monty Python could think up such a ridiculous scenario!

[azure13]

Yep, it can't get worse. We are already paying super high rates to cover the uninsured. 62% of personal bankruptcies are because of medical costs and inadequate insurance. We end up paying for that in some way also. Most likely higher rates in just about everything.
Businesses are struggling to provide benefits, which just makes outsourcing more attractive.
People who are against a public plan are just plain stupid scared little lemmings.

[incog-nito]

Total hogwash. If a lot of people take advantage of the national plan, what will the doctors do? Will they move to another developed country to practice? FYI: They ALL already universal health care. Will they quit their profession because they're not as wealthy as they used to be? FYI: Most doctors in other countries make on par with other professionals with equivalent education. And there are more than enough foreign doctors willing to come here to practice. In case you haven't noticed, a lot of docs nowadays are immigrants.

[azure13]

At least 20% of our doctors are Indian.

[ubrew12]

Single payer healthcare, like they have in Canada, results in BETTER healthcare than we have (according to the World Health Organization) at HALF the cost that we are paying.

But Obama isn't pushing for that. He's pushing for expanding private insurance into the publicly-financed sphere. A recipe for disaster.

We need single-payer... NOW.

[mks4health]

Why are CBS journalists acting as shills for the health insurance industry?

Your story was so biased in favor of insurance corporations (who profit by collecting payments from healthy people, only to DENY health care when we need it), it's embarrassing. From your headline, through your alarmist copy and images, your piece reeks of fear-mongering?not accurate reporting.

I agree with the previous comments. The market-based, private U.S. health delivery system is broken. Republicans who represent insurance companies instead of their constituents?and news networks who report only news favorable to their sponsors?will be tuned out, and voted out. Americans deserve a Public Health Option. If Republicans who are in the pocket of Big Insurance continue to block it, let's move directly to Universal, Single-Payer Health Care.

Journalism is a public trust. Please honor that trust, and report balanced information to the public, your viewers.

[DefendLiberty]

Yes, the GOP must PROTECT THE PROFITS OF THEIR "WEALTH" INSURANCE COMPANIES.

What do the "Wealth Insurance Companies" contribute to your health?

A 30% surcharge on all medical bills:

-- They must pay their staffs (Especially the ones who are DEDICATED TO DENYING YOU COVERAGE FOR PROCEDURES).

-- They must make their PROFITS, which are in the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

-- They must pay their EXECUTIVES- TENS OF MILLIONS A YEAR.

-- They must PAY OFF THE GOP with CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS and JOBS FOR FORMER GOP POLITICIANS.

Yes, the GOP is the SHAMEFUL MOUTHPIECE for the CRIMINALS that are the Health Insurance Companies. McConnell is just another prostitute for the GOP's corporate masters.

[azure13]

Well said.

[wogerwabbit]

I think they should work it in gradually... open Medicare requirements down to people 55 and older, the ones who need it the most, then see how it goes for a couple years... this will surely give it a stress test. It'll keeps the insurance companies afloat for a while and we'll get a real good idea how this is going to work and what adjusts need to be done to the system before opening it to all. It's certainly going to be a death blow to private insurance and this would humanely give them time to get retrained and find real jobs. A win-win situation.