Lame Duck Congress

Bill Koser is a local small business owner and a guest contributor today.  He gives us some things to think about.   Thank you Bill.

This is a congress that meets after the election where all the Senators and Congressmen who either retired or were voted out of office still get to vote.  They are no longer responsible to you, the voter, so they do very foolish - self-serving and often money wasting - things.

Why do we allow this?  I believe that as soon as the election results are final, the elected - and only the elected - have the right to represent us.  Those who have retired or were defeated no longer represent anyone but themselves, so the do not have the right to vote on legislation.  We need to be clear that the term of office ends on Election Day!

I suspect that it will take a very large “grass roots” campaign to get this changed, but we must do it!  Contact your Representative & your Senators and let them know that this is one change we need to make now!

And, while we are at it, the President’s term should be handled the same way.  The retiring of defeated President should not have any power to pardon, sign legislation, sign executive orders, or to do anything except respond to a true emergency where national defense or a natural disaster requires immediate action.  Install the new President a.s.a.p. after the election is final.  We don’t need 75 days of “limbo” every four years.  (And, we don’t need a multi million dollar “Inaugural”.  A little pomp will do.)

It is time we all take responsibility for holding our government accountable – it’s our money, our time, and even our lives that they are wasting.          Bill Koser

Government and Medical Insurance Increase Health Care Costs

This topic drives me crazy.  I was listening to a discussion on national television.   The Republicans were defending first dollar medical insurance.  The Democrats were defending Obama Care. 

This is nuts.  Neither is defendable.  Both increase the cost of health care.  Involving any third party has to drive up the cost.  This is not rocket science. 

The most effective way of bringing down the cost of health care is to stop the involvement of the government and medical insurance in routine health care.  Routine health care should be between the patient and the health care provider.  No one else should be involved.  This is the only way to bring down the cost.  If you or someone you know is not capable to make their own decisions concerning their health care, I would recommend a relative to make those decisions instead of the government or some medical insurance claims representative.

I hate to harp on this issue, but the solution is so simple.  Check out some of my previous blogs.  How do we get our government representatives to wake up and solve the problem?  Most don’t seem to even recognize that health care and medical insurance are two separate and distinct things. 

Is Fiscal Responsibility Becoming Politically Popular?

There was a time when political candidates from both the Democrat and Republican parties wanted to present themselves as a moderate.  The theory was to avoid being objectionable to either the right or the left. 

Compromise was the key for the moderate politician.  How many times have you heard some idiot politician say he would just get everyone to the table and work it out?  What this meant was giving concessions to everyone, which inevitably meant more government spending, and more government debt.  This political practice had to stop.

Being fiscally responsibility has not been considered a moderate political position in recent years, but maybe times are changing.  I sincerely hope so for the good of our country and the future of our grandchildren. 

We currently have a US Senate race in Wisconsin.  We have three viable candidates for the Republican nomination, and here is the good news.  All three are trying to present themselves as the most conservative and fiscally responsible.  Not one is trying to present himself as a moderate ready to compromise. 

I know much of this is BS based on their history, but I think it is positive that they are all trying to present themselves as fiscally responsible.  Who knows, maybe they had a revelation and have seen that our current government spending is sending this country over a cliff.  I don’t know if they have seen the light or just think they have to portray themselves as facially responsible, but I think it is a positive sign either way. 

Racism In Politics

Several things have happened in the last couple weeks that really bother me.  I do not consider myself to be a racist and I don’t think most white people are today.  If we look at the south fifty years ago, it is pretty clear there were many racists, but that is no longer the case.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still white people that are racist, but I think they are a pretty small percentage today. 

Everyone has prejudices including me.   My prejudices do not involve blacks and are based on personal experience with a small sample group, but it is hard to ignore those feelings. 

        This is why I have a problem with the use of racism in politics.  If I criticize President Oboma, and someone disagrees with me, I am immediately called a racist.  Not always, but that is the label the majority of the time, and this is wrong.  I don’t care if President Obama is white, black, green, or purple.  I disagree with things like the lack of fiscal responsibility, and that is my right as a citizen of this country. 

        Criticism of President Obama does not make me a racist.  Why does the liberal progressive left have to play the race card anytime Obama is criticized?  The obvious explanation is that any rational argument is so weak that they have no choice except to play the race card.

Founding Fathers, States Rights and Individual Freedoms

The number one concern of our founding fathers and the framers of the Constitution was having the federal government get too big.  They were afraid the federal government would infringe on the rights of the states and restrict the freedom of individuals.

This is why several states would not adopt the constitution until the first ten amendments were added.  The ninth and tenth amendments specifically limit the size of the federal government. 

The Ninth Amendment

        “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

The Tenth Amendment

        The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

        These two amendments seem pretty clear and straightforward.  The founding fathers thought they made it clear the federal government would have limited powers for things like foreign affairs and consequently would stay small in size and expense. 

        What happened?  What would the founding fathers think of the 3.6 trillion dollars our federal government now spends every year, and almost 16 trillion dollars of debt?  What went wrong?  This cannot continue. We must stop this power and greed in Washington.  We are creating a political elite ruling class.  We must fix this problem or we will all lose our personal freedoms eventually.  It is already happening in several areas of individual and states rights. Unfortunately, we do not get too concerned if the loss of these rights and freedoms do not affect us personally, and before we know it, it is too late. 

        We must get involved and reduce the size of the federal government and the government debt now before it is too late.

The Solutions To Affordable Health Care

The primary reasons for the rising health care costs are huge service and administrative costs and the lack of competition.  So how do we fix it?

Actually the solutions are quite simple.  We eliminate the majority of service costs.  This means taking the cost of filing insurance claims away from the health care provider, and eliminating the majority of the claims service cost from the insurance provider.

We promote true major medical insurance and make

changes to eliminate first dollar coverage medical insurance.  We promote and encourage medical savings plans.  Medical savings plans will give people cash reserves to pay predictable, routine and preventative health care costs.  This will promote competition and eliminate the cost of insurance company involvement. 

Simple right?  How do we do it?  Actually, it is quit simple.  I think I could write the legislation myself and it probably would be less than ten pages long. 

1.          Make the discounting practice to insurance companies illegal.  Individuals paying for their normal routine health care must not be penalized. 

2.          Make it illegal for any health care provider to have direct contact with any medical insurance company, or ask a patient for their medical insurance.  Service companies or accounting firms can provide this service if the patient desires, but it will not increase the cost of health care from the health care provider.  These companies can hire the displaced workers from the claims departments of the insurance companies and health care providers.

3.          Encourage true major medical policies with high deductibles of maybe $50,000 or more per injury or disease.  Deductibles are per injury or disease, and NOT annual.  These policies will have no benefit limit and no co-pay.  We must not run predictable, routine and preventative health care costs though medical insurance.

4.          Encourage individual medical savings accounts that accumulate over the years.  Money put in these accounts would be tax exempt if we continue with our archaic tax system.  These savings accounts could be used to pay predictable, routine and preventative health care costs.  It could also be used for major medical insurance premiums in the event of an emergency.  Maybe major medical insurance premiums could also be discounted with proof of a medical savings plan. 

5.          A “Luxury Tax” will be imposed on any first dollar coverage medical insurance.  This will have to be implemented in stages based on a person’s age, as older people do not have the medical savings accounts in place.  Eventually this “Luxury Tax” should be as high as 100% of the premium. 

6.          There will always be poor people.  Private charity or government run clinics and hospitals similar to the present VA hospitals and clinics will provide health care for the poor. 

This solution may seem radical, but think about it.   It

will work, and it will reduce health care costs.  The biggest roadblocks for this simple solution are politicians and insurance companies, which will fight the change, because it will cost them money and power.  I think most health care provides will welcome the change.

I believe this could reduce health care costs by 40% in the first year and as much as 80% went fully implemented.  Think about. It makes sense. 

The Medical Insurance Industry and The Health Care Industry

        On March 8, 2012 I posted a blog titled “ The Greatest Marketing Job Ever.”  This blog points out how the medical insurance industry sold the public on the idea of medical insurance with first dollar coverage. 

They also sold the public on the convenience of having the health provider handle the claim.  They sold the health care provider that this was a needed service for their clients.  They also sold the health care provider that this system would help them get paid for their services. 

This sounds great, but all this service costs.  Thousands of people are employed in medical billing and claims for both the insurance company and the health care provider.  Every health care service provided is submitted to the insurance company, even if pays nothing on the claim.  The cost of the claims process is enormous and is driving up the cost of heath care. 

Another problem in my option is the practice of discounting the cost of health care services to the insurance company.  The insurance company obviously encourages this practice.  It also means the health care provider must raise their prices to cover the discounts. 

Health care providers discount their services by as much as 70% to the insurance providers.  This means an insurance company would only pay $300 for a $1,000 service. 

Which figure do you think is used for your deductible or co-pay requirement.  If you think the $300 figure is used for those computations, you are just being naive.

It also means that if you want to buy a true major medical policy and pay for your normal predictable and routine health care personally, you will be paying $1,000 for a $300 service.  Some politicians like U.S. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa has been trying to stop the discounting practice for years with little success.

Since many people do not ask about costs for health care services, there is little competition.  People have the attitude, “It is covered by insurance anyway so who cares.” 

There was a study of heath care costs in our area.  One health care service studied varied in price from $1,000 to $6,000.  Were there differences in quality?  Yes, but quality had little correlation to the price.  This seems to be the same as with most businesses.

How much has this first dollar coverage medical billing raised the cost of heath care?  A very conservative estimate is 100%.  Personally, I think the real cost is closer to 500%. 

How do we fix the problem?  It is a problem that has been caused over the last sixty years and can’t be totally fixed over night, but some change could be done over night.

Specifics next week.