Round and Round We Go!

Have you ever wondered what contributes to the high cost of healthcare? Hospitals recently released these figures. Medicare and medicaid pay 70% and 90% of billed charges respectively. To compensate for the loss of revenue hospitals overcharge insurance carriers 130% for covered procedures. Would it be safe to assume that is reflected in our premiums? Talk about a back door taxation!

See there is no such thing as "free" healthcare, someone, somewhere is paying for it. Now we sit in a catch 22 situation. A government created entitlement is responsible for driving up health insurance premiums that the legislators in Washington are using as a talking point to regulate the insurance agency's premiums, and create yet another entitlement program. Can we assume the loss of income created by this new entitlement will be yet again passed on to the responsible citizen who purchases their own healthcare insurance? I hope I didn't lose you there.

Here is the final blow. Washington will regulate insurance premiums, either through legislation or a government run option, lowering the profitability. This will have one of two results. The government option will be the most attractive, moving people to leave private insurance, or the private companies will flat go out of business. In the end we have government controlled healthcare, another out of control entitlement.

You can't fix a problem you created by installing another problem.

God Bless
Capt. Bill