SUMMARY: A new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Purchaser Business Group on Health shows signs that corporate executives might be warming to the idea of government getting more involved to rein in the excesses of the healthcare system. It’s affecting their bottom lines, and they won’t stand for that. Big changes are coming.
Healthcare costs
QUICK READ: The American healthcare system is too damn profitable for any reasonable reforms. If we don’t address this issue head-on when will we?
QUICK READ: States lifting stay-at-home orders may not begin to bring patient volumes back for primary care physicians for several months, according to a new survey.
QUICK READ: Healthcare costs are a key part of the upcoming election but misinformation spreads quickly as we are learning with the Coronavirus. Yes, some drug prices are high but drug prices are only $.10 of every healthcare dollar spent. DTC marketers can’t continue as before; changes need to be made.
QUICK READ:
- During the State of the Union on Tuesday night, President Trump said his administration is “taking on the big pharmaceutical companies.
- Democrats quickly responded by getting to their feet, holding up three fingers, and chanting, “H.R. 3! H.R. 3!” H.R. 3 is the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act.
- The measure requires Medicare to negotiate for lower prices on insulin and other life-saving medicines and was passed by the House in December. Now, the bill is sitting in the Senate
SUMMARY: Relief, in lower healthcare costs, is not coming next year and in fact may be getting worse. While rising healthcare costs are sure to be included in any political debate voters are going to get angrier that their paychecks are being eaten by rising deductibles, hospital costs, and rising drug prices.
PONTIFICATION: The headline read “Health Care Costs Are Eating Us Alive, A New Survey Shows”. In the past 10 years, the average premium for job-based health insurance that covers a family has risen 54%, to $20,756. Moreover, the amount of that premium workers pays for family coverage has increased 71%, to $6,015. Simply put: this is unsustainable.
- Most Americans are focused on what they’re being charged for health care, not how much they or an aging population are consuming, according to a new POLITICO/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll.
- Respondents blamed drug companies, insurers, providers and even the federal government for surging costs while dismissing overuse as a central issue.
- 54 percent of respondents believe that high health costs are a serious problem. Asked about the reasons, nearly 80 percent said the prices charged by drugmakers were a major factor, while 75 percent held insurance companies responsible and 74 percent held hospitals responsible.
- Our high cost of care and modest health outcomes will remain stubbornly fixed unless our behavior changes.