Helath Care OR Medical Insurance

  

        Do you want affordable health care, OR first dollar billing medical insurance?  Does this sound like a dumb question to you?  Maybe you still think you can have both.  Politicians interchange the terms health care and medical insurance.  The two terms are not interchangeable, and this perpetuates the confusion and delays addressing the real problem.  Some people now predict potential problems with a medical insurance card that is not accepted and no good.  As long as we don't address the couase of the problem, it is hard to get serious about a workable solution.

        In 1965, my university insurance professor, Emmett J. Vaughan, first made me aware of the potential problem with first dollar medical insurance.  Emmett knew his subject and was probably the best teacher I ever encountered.  I reference Emmett in my book, Business Fits.  I considered him a friend and he also was a potential investor in one of my business ventures.  Emmett pointed out that for the premium cost of first dollar medical insurance, a person could buy major (catastrophic) medical insurance, put the difference in premiums in the bank savings account, and the money in the savings account could hire a CPA to handle all your healthcare bills, pay the healthcare providers, and you would still have money left over in the savings account. 

        First dollar medical insurance should actually be referred to as first dollar billing medical insurance because the policy does not pay until a deductible is met, but expense is incurred with first dollar billed for both the insurance company and the health care provider.  Everyone should understand that this expense raises both the cost of health care and medical insurance without providing the consumer with any benefit except a false sense of security and convenience.  It’s just common sense.

        I have been talking and writing about this subject since before the Affordable Care Act.  I feel like a broken record, but slowly and surely more and more people are being made aware of the problem.  Obama Care has done a lot to speed up this awareness.  “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan, period.”  “If you like your Doctor, you can keep your Doctor, period.”  Many people like myself questioned these two lies at the time.  Obama Care may not have passed without these lies, but its just politics, so who cares?

        Maybe enough people will be affected personally by Obama Care to force our elected officials to start addressing the real problem and start working on a real solution to affordable health care.  I hope this happens before we have a complete government takeover of our health care.     Catastrophic medical insurance and medical savings plans are the most probable solutions.  Lets start talking about this real change.  Cost savings of 40% are 80% are a real possibility.  I understand the negative side of this solution is that it does not increase the size and power of the government.  Personally, I think that is a good thing.

Build a Better Mousetrap

     

     "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." is one of the myths about business discussed in my book Buisiness Fits: How to find the right business for you!

     This is a common mistake for inventors and people with manufacturing experience.  Historically, the people who invent a product seldom are the ones who make a lot of money from the product. 

      The people who market the product are usually the ones making most of the money.  Without marketing, nobody even knows about the better mousetrap, so how can they buy it.

       This is also a common mistake for people offering a service.  You may offer the best service in the world, but if nobody knows about your service, you have no customers or clients.  Without customers, you have no income. 

      Consulting businesses are a good example.  A consultant may be the best in their field, but if they don’t market their services, they’ll probably fail.  Many consultants feel they must spend a minimum of 50% of their time marketing their service and only 50% of their time providing a billable service.

      A common mistake is stopping marketing activities because business is good.  0ne day they wake up with no clients or business and wonder what happened.  Any business plan must schedule marketing and prospecting as part of the daily activities.  

http://businessfits.com

Perjury

     One Webster dictionary defines perjury as: “in law, the willful telling of a lie while under oath to tell the truth in a matter material to the point of inquiry.”  Under U.S. federal law, perjury is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.  As a private citizen we never want to commit perjury. 

     As honest and moral individuals, most of us feel obligated to tell the truth.  If we are religious, most religions say telling a lie is a sin.  In my book, Business Fits, there is a chapter on customer service.  I state the number one rule of customer service is, “Never lie to a customer.”

     Considering all this, why do we think politicians telling lies is okay?  I hear people say, “Its just politics.”  Does that mean politics is not important?  Does it mean politics don’t effect out daily lives?  Does it mean it’s okay to lie to people so they don’t have accurate information to decide whom to vote for?  Have we come to the point where lies and big money perpetuating those lies decide elections?  I hope not, but we may need to make some changes.  Change can be good, especially if it does not increase the size of government and the power of the political elite.

     I knew an individual who was one of our elected state legislators.  He was appalled at how legislators could make an argument on the house floor and make statements they knew were not true.  I think all elected government officials, appointed government officials, or anyone running for office should be made to take an oath to tell the truth under the penalty of perjury.  I think these government officials should be held to a higher standard and should forfeit all rights associated to the government position if convicted of any felony including perjury. 

     I am just dreaming, as I am not naive enough to think this type of legislation could be passed and signed into law as many of the political elite would be signing legislation that would end their political careers.  While we’re dreaming, maybe we should make the news media, and advertisers knowingly making false statements be subject to penalty of perjury too.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have elected officials actually working for the good of the country?  It was fun to fantasize for a moment. 

     I guess we will just have to take the personal responsibility to actually find out the facts and try to disseminate these facts to our personal circle of influence.  I have to admit that in my younger years, I was too involved with earning a living to actually investigate what was true politically.  I am ashamed to say I made some bad voting decisions because I was influenced by some of my peers and influence peddlers that were not telling, or did not know the truth. 

     Our political system is not perfect, but it is probably the best in the world.  Our founding fathers felt the media would be the country’s watchdog and help the public make informed voting decisions.  Some of our media does this, and some have become lap dogs promoting the political agendas of the political elite. 

     We all have a personal responsibility to gets the facts and make informed voting decisions.  We must take this responsibility seriously for the sake of future generations.

Was Obama Care Designed To Fail?

     This is an interesting idea.  The Affordable Care Act is the crowning achievement of the Obama Presidency and it seems to be a total disaster.  How is this possible? 

     The web site does not work inspite of an almost unlimited budget and more than enough expertise available to roll it out in a much shorter time than the government had to work with.   I saw one comparison showing how we won World War II in less time than the government had to get the website functional. 

     The Affordable Care Act is 2,400 pages of legalese that no one seems to have read.  It is so complex that I probable could not understand it or comprehend it if I did read it.  Maybe Nancy Pelosi was right when she said, “We have to pass it to find out what is in it.”

     I could never understand how the unions backed it, but they have been granted exceptions.  I never understood why some insurance executives supported it, but now we know they were promised bailouts if claims were too high.  The political elite is also excluded.  The rich are not affected.  It seems like only the working middle class is affected.

     We were promised we could keep our medical insurance if we liked it.  We were promised we could keep our Doctors.  We were promised lower medical insurance premiums.  People with medical insurance through their work thought they would not be affected.  We now know all that was not true.  Were the people making these claims misinformed, incompetent or just lying?  It’s just politics, so who cares?

     In order for Obama Care to work, a lot of young healthy people that do not have medical insurance must sign up with higher premiums than they would have had prior to the implementation of the law.  This is further complicated by the fact that the law allows kids to be covered under their parent’s policy to age 26.  The numbers don’t work.  They can’t work.  Some right wing nuts have been saying this for years.  I am proud to be one of those nuts.

     Forget the web site for a minute.  What is going to happen with Obama Care?  We already know many people will lose their medical insurance.  Some will have to change Doctors.  Some will lose their jobs or have their hours cut to part-time. 

     More people will sign up for Medicaid.  Some people will receive subsidies from the government to pay for their medical insurance.  Unfortunately, they will still not be able to afford the deductibles.  The cost for the government will continue to escalate. 

     More government departments will be created and more employees will be hired.  Eventually, Affordable Care will grow to the point it will be more efficient to go to a Single Payer.  This is what the Progressives wanted all along, but they knew they could never get there in one step.  Is Obama Care just one of the steps?  Did the political elite know it could never work? 

Business Myths

In my book Business Fits: How to Find the Right Business for You! I have a chapter called “Myths about Starting a Business.” The myths discussed are:

·       Starting a business is too risky.  A good job is the only real security.

·       Start small and grow.

·       Banks make business loans.

·       Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

·       I will know the right business when I see it.

·       I need to find a business that can’t fail.

·       Why should I pay a franchise fee and continuing royalty for something I can do myself?

·       Do what you know and love and you will be a success.

If any of these business myths peaks your interest, you can order Business Fits at: https://www.createspace.com/4290991

Thunderbird or Pinto

When I was a Ford-Mercury dealer in the early 1970s, I sold both Thunderbirds and Pintos.  Both cars were both great cars for the time.  The Thunderbird was a true personal luxury car, and usually what my wife chose to drive.  The Pinto was also a great car, but did not have the comfortable ride or the equipment of the Thunderbird.  The Pinto did have a lower purchase price and was more economical to operate and maintain. 

Both cars filled a need and the more economical Pinto offered some people the opportunity to buy a new car that could never afford a new Thunderbird.  This is the free market system.  As a dealer, I liked to sell a new Thunderbird because I normally made more profit selling a Thunderbird than selling a Pinto, but I sold a lot more Pintos than Thunderbirds. 

What would have happened if the government passed a law that all Pintos were “Sub Standard” and everyone had to buy a Thunderbird?  The answer is simple.  Most people would not have been able to afford a new car.  They would have to keep their existing car, buy a used car, use public transportation, or walk.  

Now I understand that Progressives would say the evil car dealers and manufacturers should just sell everyone a Thunderbird for the price of a Pinto.  Unfortunately, neither the dealer nor manufacturer can stay in business this way.  The other option is for the government to subsidize everyone that can’t afford a Thunderbird. 

This makes sense only if we want bigger government, more taxes, less personal freedom, and a socialist country eliminating the free market system.  Kind of sounds like Obama Care doesn’t it.  Personally, I don’t like the idea and will vote accordingly.

Insurance Deductibles

When I was a Ford-Mercury dealer, I needed insurance for the business.  This insurance policy was normally referred to as Garage Keepers insurance.  One of the things it covered was damage or losses to vehicle inventory.  The majority of the policies at that time had a per vehicle deductible much the same as the deductible on your personal vehicle with your Family Auto policy.  For example, you might pay the first $100 to $500 of any damage claim.  This is fine for an individual, but presents a risk for an auto dealer. 

The problem with a per vehicle deductible for a dealer is that damage to a lot full of vehicles could be a catastrophic loss for the dealer.  Protecting against catastrophic loss is what insurance should do.  I knew a Ford dealer that had his entire new and used car inventory damaged by a hailstorm.  The damage per car was not huge, but the total damage was devastating.  Since he had a per vehicle deductible, the storm almost bankrupted the dealership. 

For this reason, I demanded an insurance policy with a Per Occurrence deductible instead of a per vehicle deductible.  Some companies would not write the policy at the time, but I found one that would.  By increasing the deductible amount, the premium remained the same.  This meant I had a higher deductible and loss when there was damage to a single vehicle, but I was limited to the same deductible for a catastrophic loss to many vehicles.  The free market system does work if we can keep the government out of it. 

In the early 1970’s car dealers still made a big deal of introducing the new models.  The introduction was usually done at night and dealers often made it a real party with food, drinks, balloons and spotlights in the sky.  Transport companies covered vehicles so the public could not see them until the day they were to be introduced.  I had rented the grandstand at the fair grounds to store and hide vehicles until the introduction day.  Some kids broke into the building and damaged almost all the vehicles.  It would have been a catastrophic loss if I had not had the Per Occurrence deductible. 

All insurance should be meant to protect against catastrophic losses and not first dollar loss that should be assumed risk.  How did we ever get into the mess we are in with health care and first dollar billing medical insurance?  See my blog of 3/8/2012 titled, “The Greatest Marketing Job Ever In The US.”

First dollar billing medical insurance is a joke.  With all this administrative cost, it is no wonder our total health care cost is five times what it should be, and anyone that thinks the federal government can handle this administrative cost better and cheaper than the private sector only has to look at history. 

        Think about the deductibles with medical insurance.  Your deductible is annual.  You start over ever year.  How does this protect you from a catastrophic illness or accident? If you are sick or hurt so you can’t work, how do you pay the premiums and deductible?  Catastrophic medical insurance should have a large deductible per illness or injury, and not an annual deductible.

        The only solution for affordable health care is catastrophic medical insurance with a large per illness or per injury detectable, and medical savings plans.  Why do we continue to look to the federal government and insurance to solve a problem they created?  The government can never to something as efficiently as the private sector with the exception of ……  Sorry, I can’t think of anything.