- FAQ on Free Market Health Insurance
I've received multiple e-mails in response to my recent letter to the editor in the May 11, 2008 New York Times advocating a free market in health insurance.
I received a number of good questions about the nature of a free market in health insurance, as well as more fundamental issues of individual rights and the proper role of government in health care. Even though we didn't always agree on some important issues, all of the e-mails I received were polite, thoughtful, and articulate.
One correspondent recommended that I post my responses online so that other interested parties (supporters and opponents alike) would have a place to read a more fully developed and explicit explanation of the ideas related to a free market in health insurance. Hence, I've paraphrased and collated an essentialized set of questions and my subsequent responses in the form of this brief FAQ.
The permanent location for this FAQ is at the Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM) website at:
http://www.westandfirm.org/blog/2008/05/faq-on-free-market-health-insurance.html
The FAQ follows below.
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- The Denver Post & Rocky Mountain News blackout of Single Payer health care information in favor of 'free market' solutions
Throughout the process of the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform, the two large Denver newspapers have consistently failed to present factual information about the Colorado Health Services Single Payer Proposal -- the one that was most favorably evaluated by the Lewin Group.
Since March of 2007 both The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News have each printed a number of commentaries by 'free-market' health care advocates Brian T. Schwartz and Paul Hsieh, as well as commentaries by Sen. Andy McElhany and ex-Senator Mark Hillman. Only Rep. Claire Levy was granted a commentary in the Post that dissented from the predominant 'free market' view.
At least five commentaries since the Spring of 2007 have been submitted by myself and others about the advantages of the Single Payer proposal, as well as the broken system of third-party multi-payer commercial health insurances. The information has been ignored by the Post and the News. Only out-state papers like the Pueblo Chieftain and some northern Colorado papers, including the Fort Collins Coloradoan and the Northern Colorado Business Report, have consistently printed different perspectives of health care reform, including the Single Payer perspective.
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- Mandatory Health Insurance as Collective Punishment
Remember grade school, when teachers would punish the whole class for the
actions of just a few troublemakers? This is collective punishment,
which is typically practiced during wartime or under martial law.
Collective punishment has now arrived with compulsory medical insurance.
Known as an "individual mandate," it's the law in Massachusetts. In
Colorado, it is central to the "Blue Ribbon" Commission's recommendations,
which commissioners presented to the General Assembly on January 31.
Politicians peddle compulsory insurance under the guise of eliminating the
"cost shift from the uninsured" by making individuals "responsible."
The story is that the uninsured get medical care without paying, which
increases premium costs for the insured. So why not simply force everyone to
buy insurance?
Because it scapegoats the victim and empowers the true perpetrators of our
insurance mess: politicians who pass laws that make insurance and medical care
so expensive.
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- U.S. Emergency Room wait times bad, getting worse - more crucial than waits for elective surgeries in Canada, U.K.
NPR reported on January 15 about a study released in the Journal of Health Affairs the same day, describing increasing waits in U.S. Emergency Rooms, even for the very sick. This on the heels of the Institutes of Medicine recent report that ERs are at a breaking point.
Dr. Arthur Kellerman, professor of emergency medicine at Emory U., noted that though it is popular to point to Canada and the UK for their long wait times for elective procedures, the waits in U.S. emergency rooms are "the waits that matter" -- heart attack victims and other true emergencies are receiving delayed care. Waits for heart attack victims doubled between 1997 and 2004.
U.S. Emergency Rooms bear the brunt of the burden of the crisis in health care access -- those who cannot access primary preventive care resort to emergency rooms for basic health care or delayed crisis care.
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- Governor Ritter makes health care reform a top priority in his State of the State speech
In his State of the State speech to the state Senate and House of
Representatives, Governor Ritter made it clear that health care reform is one
his top priorities for this year. "On health care, my goal remains
the same- that all Coloradans have access to some basic level of health
care." He stated that we have to keep addressing the cost of health
care, but "in a way that acknowledges fiscal constraints of the this
state."
Gov. Ritter conceded that there is "no magic bullet to fix a system
that is fundamentally broken," and acknowledged the efforts of the 208
commission to take a "thoughtful approach to systemic
reform."
The Governor highlighted accomplishments in health care reform that were
already made in 2007, such as the 10,000 children enrolled in CHP+ and
the new medical home program.
As for upcoming plans, Gov. Ritter spoke of saving costs with the new disease-management
programs and the Childhood Immunization Information System.
Read about the speech in the news:
Rocky
Mountain News article
Denver Post article
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- Overview: Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform Draft Final Report / Recommendations
During its nearly 16-month length of service, the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform comprised of 27 members statewide appointed by two governors and 4 legislators -- will have received 31 proposals (23 comprehensive, 7 Single Payer). Four of these proposals were selected for evaluation by the Lewin Group, in addition to a 5th Proposal written by a subcommittee of the Commission. The Colorado Health Services Single Payer Proposal is the only reform proposal that demonstrated any savings for the state -- $1.4 billion -- and also the only one capable of providing comprehensive health care for all. The Colorado Commission chose to base most of its recommendations on its own (5th) Proposal.
The 208 Commission Recommendations fail to address:
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- If mandated benefits contribute to the uninsured, why not reform them?
In today's Rocky Mountain News has an opinion piece by Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research
Institute. She writes: "Ever wonder why health insurance costs so much in Colorado?
Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that every insurance policy in
the state must cover all kinds of services  including professional counseling
 deemed unnecessary by many."
In October former state senator Mark Hillman wrote about the same topic in
the Denver Post: "Women who plan to never have children or who are
beyond childbearing years must buy maternity coverage. They also, inexplicably,
must pay for prostate screening. People who don't drink must purchase coverage
for alcoholism. And despite the added cost of mental health coverage, everyone
who buys insurance must purchase it."
