Cassidy: Movement of reforming health care reached Tipping P
Tuesday, Mar 24,2009, 12:04:40 AM Click:
Copyright 2009 San Jose Mercury NewsAll rights reserved San Jose Mercury News (California)
Thursday 19 March 2009
SECTION: BREACH; News; local columnists; Business; columnists
LENGTH: 694 words
TITLE: Cassidy: reform movement of health care reaches tipping point
Signature: By Mike Cassidy Mercury News Columnist
I am beginning to think that maybe one or two years from now we will have a health care system that seems very different from what we have today.
It will not be the system I would have designed. It will not be the plan you have designed, either. In fact, there will be something for everyone to dislike. But it will be better than what we have now.
The source of my optimism? Whenever you have the Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union are united in demanding an overhaul of health care (www.dividedwefail.org), you know the context of the debate has changed dramatically. You know it's a new day at any time you have the president of the American Chamber of Commerce, saying: "We will play in this case. We'll get some sort of agreement here, either two-thirds of what everyone wants or three quarters of what everyone wants, or who knows? "
In short, when the big companies is at stake and is willing to take less than what he wants, you know you have a chance. The impetus for competing interests to come together has been for years the building, and finally we have reached a tipping point.
"Employers have no tolerance," said Emily Lam, director of health care and the federal government in matters of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. "I was in health care for my entire career, and I think we all know that this is the best opportunity we've seen for a long time, if ever, get these things fixed."
Skyrocketing medical costs are not only crushing families, they are killing businesses. To provide health care for workers has been a false charge, the companies were willing to consider health as the cost of attracting a high quality of work. And when workers rarely reached in their own pockets for medical care, there is no reason for them to lobby for change.
These days are longer.
When President Barack Obama has brought together diverse interests in the debate on health care earlier this month, he correctly called the soaring costs of health care "one of the most serious threats not only for the well-being of our families and the prosperity of our businesses, but the very foundation of our economy. "
Today, approximately 46 million Americans go without health insurance. As more and more workers lose their jobs and health insurance, many others are faced with the agony, without choice or to go bankrupt. Even those who have insurance employer to pay more for less coverage.
And, Lam said, many companies in Silicon Valley are saying that after wages, health benefits are more expensive.
Mir Imran, Menlo Park medical device innovation that began more than 20 companies and serves on a dozen boards of directors, said the cost of providing health coverage for employees has tripled since 1990. This money is money Imran can not use to hire more workers and invest more in research and development.
"It's crippling," says Imran, founder of Incubate Labs. "These economies are not in our pockets. We can do more with this money."
Imran said he had to provide health insurance quality, since it competes for talent of all the other Silicon Valley company, starting from the smallest to the biggest concern of the Fortune 500.
"When I interview people," Imran said: "The first question they ask is" What is your package of health care? ""
The good news is that almost all major players agree that the time has come for a new health care system. The cost of inaction is too high. The big question is: What will it look like?
I will explore in a future column.
Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5536.
Workers contributed nearly $ 3400 towards their premiums for health care in 2008, jumped 12 percent a year. Since 1999, employers' premiums rose by 120 percent, compared with 44 percent inflation and wage growth of 29 percent. Average own costs for deductibles, co-payments for drugs, and co-insurance for doctors and hospital visits rose 115 percent since 2000. Health spending in the United States reached $ 2.4 trillion in 2008, and is expected to reach $ 4.3 trillion in 2016.
Source: National Coalition on Health Care
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LOAD-DATE: 21 March 2009
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Thursday 19 March 2009
SECTION: BREACH; News; local columnists; Business; columnists
LENGTH: 694 words
TITLE: Cassidy: reform movement of health care reaches tipping point
Signature: By Mike Cassidy Mercury News Columnist
I am beginning to think that maybe one or two years from now we will have a health care system that seems very different from what we have today.
It will not be the system I would have designed. It will not be the plan you have designed, either. In fact, there will be something for everyone to dislike. But it will be better than what we have now.
The source of my optimism? Whenever you have the Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union are united in demanding an overhaul of health care (www.dividedwefail.org), you know the context of the debate has changed dramatically. You know it's a new day at any time you have the president of the American Chamber of Commerce, saying: "We will play in this case. We'll get some sort of agreement here, either two-thirds of what everyone wants or three quarters of what everyone wants, or who knows? "
In short, when the big companies is at stake and is willing to take less than what he wants, you know you have a chance. The impetus for competing interests to come together has been for years the building, and finally we have reached a tipping point.
"Employers have no tolerance," said Emily Lam, director of health care and the federal government in matters of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. "I was in health care for my entire career, and I think we all know that this is the best opportunity we've seen for a long time, if ever, get these things fixed."
Skyrocketing medical costs are not only crushing families, they are killing businesses. To provide health care for workers has been a false charge, the companies were willing to consider health as the cost of attracting a high quality of work. And when workers rarely reached in their own pockets for medical care, there is no reason for them to lobby for change.
These days are longer.
When President Barack Obama has brought together diverse interests in the debate on health care earlier this month, he correctly called the soaring costs of health care "one of the most serious threats not only for the well-being of our families and the prosperity of our businesses, but the very foundation of our economy. "
Today, approximately 46 million Americans go without health insurance. As more and more workers lose their jobs and health insurance, many others are faced with the agony, without choice or to go bankrupt. Even those who have insurance employer to pay more for less coverage.
And, Lam said, many companies in Silicon Valley are saying that after wages, health benefits are more expensive.
Mir Imran, Menlo Park medical device innovation that began more than 20 companies and serves on a dozen boards of directors, said the cost of providing health coverage for employees has tripled since 1990. This money is money Imran can not use to hire more workers and invest more in research and development.
"It's crippling," says Imran, founder of Incubate Labs. "These economies are not in our pockets. We can do more with this money."
Imran said he had to provide health insurance quality, since it competes for talent of all the other Silicon Valley company, starting from the smallest to the biggest concern of the Fortune 500.
"When I interview people," Imran said: "The first question they ask is" What is your package of health care? ""
The good news is that almost all major players agree that the time has come for a new health care system. The cost of inaction is too high. The big question is: What will it look like?
I will explore in a future column.
Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5536.
Workers contributed nearly $ 3400 towards their premiums for health care in 2008, jumped 12 percent a year. Since 1999, employers' premiums rose by 120 percent, compared with 44 percent inflation and wage growth of 29 percent. Average own costs for deductibles, co-payments for drugs, and co-insurance for doctors and hospital visits rose 115 percent since 2000. Health spending in the United States reached $ 2.4 trillion in 2008, and is expected to reach $ 4.3 trillion in 2016.
Source: National Coalition on Health Care
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