Posted 12:50 pm Friday, September 21, 2012
Send to Kindle
Health care reform law won't bring down costs
In response to the recent Supreme Court decision to allow the states to “opt out” of President Obama’s Health Care Law Medicaid expansion requirements, the Congressional Budget Office announced an additional reduction of the deficit by $84 billion.
Those savings may sound nice, but the law doesn’t do much, if anything, to address our country’s chief health care challenge — uncontained costs. The fact of the matter is this, health insurance coverage is expensive, because health care “costs” are expensive.
The Affordable Care Act implements several cost drivers that will make that health insurance premiums even more expensive. The law levies new taxes on insurers, employers, medical device firms and drug-makers. These taxes will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for products.
Additionally several new “PPACA” benefit mandates are also driving up the cost of coverage.
Policies must cover all sorts of medical procedures — whether the policy holder wants them or not. This adds to premium cost. The law also limits how high a plan’s deductible may be.
This limitation, which may be seen as a “friendly” mandate on the surface, actually forces higher premiums in exchange for the rich plan designs. To compound the problem more, this limits plan options for consumers to select when deciding deductible options.
The health care law’s efforts to improve access to insurance are admirable. But they’ll be wasted if insurance coverage remains unaffordable.
Addressing the system’s cost drivers is crucial to preventing that unfortunate outcome.
Wendy Vanderwater-Bratteli, SGS, CISR
East Texas Association of Health Underwriters
Those savings may sound nice, but the law doesn’t do much, if anything, to address our country’s chief health care challenge — uncontained costs. The fact of the matter is this, health insurance coverage is expensive, because health care “costs” are expensive.
The Affordable Care Act implements several cost drivers that will make that health insurance premiums even more expensive. The law levies new taxes on insurers, employers, medical device firms and drug-makers. These taxes will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for products.
Additionally several new “PPACA” benefit mandates are also driving up the cost of coverage.
Policies must cover all sorts of medical procedures — whether the policy holder wants them or not. This adds to premium cost. The law also limits how high a plan’s deductible may be.
This limitation, which may be seen as a “friendly” mandate on the surface, actually forces higher premiums in exchange for the rich plan designs. To compound the problem more, this limits plan options for consumers to select when deciding deductible options.
The health care law’s efforts to improve access to insurance are admirable. But they’ll be wasted if insurance coverage remains unaffordable.
Addressing the system’s cost drivers is crucial to preventing that unfortunate outcome.
Wendy Vanderwater-Bratteli, SGS, CISR
East Texas Association of Health Underwriters
CRISIS MODE
The Middle East is crumbling. The Red Chinese are on the move. The Russians are on the move. Iran is close to having nukes. Israel is on its own on what appears to be the eve of war. And where is President Obama? He’s in Vegas and Colorado, fundraising, campaigning and cracking jokes at his rallies.
The American flag is on fire all over the Middle East. The Al-Qaeda flag is being raised.
Our ambassador to Libya is dead. And the New York Times tries to tell us that Obama has these guys on the run. What an absolute example of total media corruption. No other way to describe it.
Jim Macdonald
Payne Springs
The American flag is on fire all over the Middle East. The Al-Qaeda flag is being raised.
Our ambassador to Libya is dead. And the New York Times tries to tell us that Obama has these guys on the run. What an absolute example of total media corruption. No other way to describe it.
Jim Macdonald
Payne Springs
PRAISE DUE
Not enough of us know how lucky we are to live in Tyler. Last Wednesday I attended our city council meeting, but could I have been dreaming?
First of all, the city wireless worked flawlessly and I noticed several citizens using their WiFi network to follow the agenda.
Transit Director Barbara Holly explained how the Yellow bus route would soon include Fresh by Brookshire’s. She also said that smartphone real-time tracking would be implemented very shortly — no more anxiety about bus arrival times. I can’t wait to take the bus to or from a Fresh Friday night!
Solid Waste announced that they would be purchasing more natural gas garbage trucks. This will save us a great deal on fuel costs, and limit money we send to our enemies.
Genecov Group donated land for the Cumberland Road extension — hopefully with bike lanes in the vicinity of Faulkner Park.
All of these advances show that our city is well-positioned to utilize technology as well as alternative fuels and transportation to save our tax dollars into the future.
Bravo, Mark McDaniel and all of our City Council and city staff.
Bob Brewer
Tyler
First of all, the city wireless worked flawlessly and I noticed several citizens using their WiFi network to follow the agenda.
Transit Director Barbara Holly explained how the Yellow bus route would soon include Fresh by Brookshire’s. She also said that smartphone real-time tracking would be implemented very shortly — no more anxiety about bus arrival times. I can’t wait to take the bus to or from a Fresh Friday night!
Solid Waste announced that they would be purchasing more natural gas garbage trucks. This will save us a great deal on fuel costs, and limit money we send to our enemies.
Genecov Group donated land for the Cumberland Road extension — hopefully with bike lanes in the vicinity of Faulkner Park.
All of these advances show that our city is well-positioned to utilize technology as well as alternative fuels and transportation to save our tax dollars into the future.
Bravo, Mark McDaniel and all of our City Council and city staff.
Bob Brewer
Tyler
