Obamacare?

It was been a while since I blogged on this subject, but the Obama plan seems to have lost most of it's muster and it's steam. Most economists, and folks from both sides of the isle seems to think we will see insurance reform, but perhaps this turns more in to insurance carriers being reformed in the private market. Seems to us that if pre-existing condition exclusions are removed, and guaranteed issue coverage takes a national state (like they have in NY, NJ, CT, MD for example) that would certainly be a piece of the pie. But there will invariably need to be business tax credits for folks that offer group coverage to their employees, and tax penalties if folks do not, which would in turn offset the internal cost structure to insurance carriers in order to be able to have bigger pools of people (both healthy and sick) to bring down premiums. What seems to have sunk the Obama plan is the fact that an already bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid government run program, if given the opportunity to bring in a government plan for all (the Public Option) would then force hospitals and private physicians to take drastically lower reimbursements, hence forcing them to drive up their charges to the privately-insured - this in turn would radically push private insurance higher, and also force providers to increase the already staggering 29% of Medicare covered senior (and then now also non-seniors with a public option) to run in to access issues - this 29% has been referenced many times in all forms of media, as the percentage of people covered under Medicare that can't get treatment because physicians prefer to not treat for such low reimbursements when they can see privately-covered patients and more reasonable reimbursements.... I have not even starting talking about Medical Malpractice tort etc...another huge piece of the pie.

That brings us to the place we are today, we need everyone in a room together, insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, and legislators, working out a better private system to continue to give Americans access to the best healthcare in the world. We have lots of work to do -