ABCs of health care
By Dr. Susanne L. King
Berkshire Eagle
Friday, July 21
LENOX
I SPOKE with two teachers from different school districts in Berkshire County this week. Both expressed their concerns about the new health care legislation that was just passed in Massachusetts. They recognize that the new law will do nothing to help teachers deal with their increasing health care expenses. Not only are health insurance premiums rising by double digits each year, but teachers and other municipal employees are also paying a larger percentage of their health insurance premiums now than they did in the past.
Meanwhile, towns and cities are strapped for funds to pay health insurance premiums for their employees, including teachers. Besides the rising costs of premiums, some people have switched from the private sector to town and city insurance plans, because municipal plans are now often better and less costly to the worker than those offered by private companies. Therefore, a couple with a spouse who works for a town will opt to be on that plan rather than the other spouse’s private sector plan, which then increases costs to the town.
The National Educational Association (NEA) has voted to allot $500,000 to support health care reform, noting that “health care for Americans benefits NEA members and children. It would help free up precious school district dollars for salary, programs and jobs.”
Unless significant health care reform occurs, that would not only support universal access but also address cost containment, things are only going to get worse. The health spending projections for 2006 predict that our national health expenditure will be over $2 trillion, with 16.5 percent of our gross domestic product going toward health care. Current trends indicate that spending growth will continue well in excess of the rate of inflation. Dr. McCanne, former head of Physicians for a National Health Plan, has said, “The greatest uncertainty is not how much we will be paying, but who will be paying it.”
Health care costs burden our towns and municipalities, and decrease the value of a teacher’s take-home pay. Yet the Fortune 500 performance report for 2005 shows that the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies continue to rack up increasing profits for their shareholders, to the tune of 51.3 percent for health insurance companies and 34.1 percent for pharmaceutical products. And what teacher or town official earned $124.8 million in 2004, like William McGuire, the CEO of the nation’s leading health insurer, UnitedHealth Group?
There is no way to make health care affordable and contain costs when the insurance and drug companies are siphoning off these kind of profits from the health care dollar, to say nothing of their “administrative costs” which include marketing and denying benefits in their “managed care plans.” Health insurance company administrative costs are 10 times higher than the government-administered Medicare plan.
Dr. Alan Sager, of the Boston University School of Public Health, just reported that health care spending in Massachusetts will increase to a stunning $62.1 billion for 2006. That is 33 percent above the national average, and more per person than any other state or country in the world.
Were we to eliminate the insurance companies, and create a “single-payer” health care system in Massachusetts, there would be enough to cover everyone, eliminate co-payments and deductibles, and provide more comprehensive benefits than we now have. (“Single-payer” refers to a single administrator of health care funds, the state government, rather than our current multiple for-profit insurance companies.)
If we had a single-payer health care system, our teachers would receive the salaries and benefits they deserve, and our towns and municipalities would have more funds for their pressing needs, like education and infrastructure. The health care “reform” legislation that was just passed does not address any of these issues.
Please talk to your legislators about supporting single-payer health care legislation. We have elections coming up for the Legislature and for the governor’s office. Ask the candidates about their position on health care reform, and whether they will work to make single-payer health care a reality if they are elected. And then, if they are elected, hold them to their promises.