Universal health coverage can and should be done, says Presi

 

Thursday, Mar 26,2009, 11:52:59 AM   Click:

Copyright: The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Source: Buffalo News, The (NY)
Wordcount: 705


March 25 - President Obama's agenda to provide comprehensive health insurance and quality care for all Americans is morally appropriate and affordable, an insurance consultant said Tuesday at a forum.

But executives of the three local insurers operating in the same case of sickness, warned that further measures are needed to bring the spiraling costs of health care under control.

Speaking to several dozen representatives of local employers, "said Michael G. Sturm the United States has the responsibility and the ability to ensure that all people have health care coverage and access to care.

"Our country is rich enough to pay for these people to have health care," said Sturm, a consulting actuary and principal at the Milwaukee office of Milliman, a consulting firm national insurance. "We should be ashamed of ourselves. "

Of the 47 million uninsured people in the United States, more than 25 million are considered "working poor", which means they can not afford the cost of insurance but do not qualify for government programs . This includes approximately 17 million children, adults, parents of 6 million and 1 million children.

The others are either eligible for Medicaid or state children's health insurance program or earn at least three times the poverty level, but do not want to spend their money on insurance, "said Sturm .

The estimated cost to cover the working poor would be $ 90 billion per year. Although it seems much, Sturm said, only 6 percent of military expenditures of the country, 3 percent of the national budget, 1 percent of the national debt and only 0.5 percent of the nation, gross domestic product.

He supported the idea of an individual mandate, in which everyone is required to obtain health insurance, even those who do not think they need it. In exchange, the insurers agree to not exclude anyone, even for pre-existing conditions.

(By the way, Tuesday, the health insurance - America's Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association - offered for the first time to reduce the practice of charging higher premiums for people with history of health problems. They always charge different premiums based on factors such as age, place of residence, family size and benefits.)


He also supported the idea of providing a tax deduction for individuals who buy health insurance, similar to what exists now for employers who offer it. But Sturm said that requiring employers to provide coverage or pay a fee or charge was "a little less intuitive, especially as businesses in competition with rivals overseas who are not spending or expectations.

He said that most of the proposals which were discussed at the national level to deal with more access to care and reducing costs, and those who do not target the costs are not necessarily succeed, or perhaps reduce quality in the process.

Sturm spoke at a forum at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo veracity sponsored benefits, a 10-year-old boutique firm of insurance brokerage, with offices in Amherst, Olean and Jamestown.

Local insurers who attended also agree with the "direction" of Sturm comments as long as the public in general agreement "moral and ethical" that all citizens must have access to health care, said Dr. Jay Pomerantz, chief medical officer of health now York, parent of Blue-Cross BlueShield of Western New York.

But he and his colleagues at the Association for Health and Independent University warned that the costs of health care will not be as long as Americans are not willing to balance the coverage with an acceptance that it can not automatically entitled to the most expensive care available.

"Consumers are very isolated from the health care costs," said Pam Pawenski, Regional Vice President of Sales at Univer. "People in our society have a strong sense of duty, in the patient demand is high."

And while insurers approve saving measures such as wellness and disease management, consumer-driven health care, improving quality through pay for performance, and the use of electronic medical records and health information technology, they stressed that it is not clear at the end of the work.

"The Obama administration is too optimistic. There is no magic bullet or single solution that will solve the problem," said John Rodgers, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, the independent health care. "We must get off blocking and the fight against ".

jepstein@buffnews.com



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