“Skin in the Game” is Harmful to Patients
In the 1990’s, due to rising healthcare costs, private health insurers began offering products with out-of-pocket costs in the form of co-pays and deductibles, referred to as Consumer-Directed Health Plans. In the early 2000’s, health savings accounts were added and High-Deductible Health Plans were matched with them. The idea was to shift more of the […]
Single Payer Would Simplify Our Healthcare System
Medicare for All is the commonsense solution to the current healthcare crisis. As TIME Magazine notes in the article “What is Single Payer Healthcare and Why is it So Popular?” published in its Money section, the United States has a very complicated healthcare system, which makes it very expensive. However: “Single payer would simplify all […]
“Young Invincibles’ and Risk Pools
There is tension in our healthcare system over risk pools. Private health insurers would have us believe that they are carrying an unfair burden of paying for health care in our current system because too few young people (known as “the young invincibles”) have purchased private health insurance. The reality is that it isn’t the […]
Business Support for Single Payer Health Care
In April, 2017, heads of businesses launched a new campaign, Business Leaders Transforming Healthcare. They recognize that the United States is unique among industrialized nations in a bad way for not having a publicly-financed universal healthcare system. This hurts businesses in a number of ways: 1. They spend tremendous time and resources on choosing insurance plans […]
The Cost of Health Care in the United States
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger made the news in May, 2017 when they said that the cost of health care is the biggest concern for businesses in the United States. Buffett called healthcare spending “the tapeworm of American Economic competitiveness.” Healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP has risen much faster in the United States […]