For general information purposes . . .

As this new year comes upon us the most pressing issue will undoubtedly be the reform of the current health care provider systems and health insurance plan coverage of all Americans.

Please keep in mind that this post is NOT a request for anyone to join The Alliance for Retired Americans.

This has been provided as an additional source of current timely information related to the upcoming efforts with the reform of the health care issue.

I am personally a long time supporter of the so-called "single-payer " plan as outlined in the long standing Rep. John Conyers, Jr. [D MI-14] House bill as outlined at the following link:

H.R.676

United States National Health Insurance Act
(the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act)

THOMAS Home > Bills, Resolutions > H.R.676

With that said, I must tell you that I was born September 4, 1946. That was the first year of the baby boomer generation that approximately 80 million individuals in total were born between 1946 and 1964. So my take on this issue really has very little to do with me. Fortunately my wife and I have been in a non-profit medical system for the past 27 years that has already begun the process for us for our coming MediCare coverage that beings in a little over two years from now. Our situation will not be changing whatsoever for us.

Many individuals in our situation have the attitude of "...oh well, I have mine..." But I have never been that type of person, nor has my wife. (she continues her work as a Spec. Ed teacher as she has over the past 30 years.)  So, my concern has to do with what the future will hold for those who will carry on into the future under the coming strain and rising financial burden of the medical costs that will undoubtedly be incurred over the next 20 years.

If the current situation remains the same the burden will only get worse. You can doubt that if you wish, but you're only denying  the on coming train.

If things remain the same, all data points to a rising financial burden on every working person in the United States on the average of approximately 1.5 to 2.0 percent per year over the next 10 years for each and every working individual or family's combined yearly budget due to the rise in health coverage costs alone.

The current status is unsustainable, let alone the future rise in costs.

NOTE UPDATED: The following has been added as of August 1, 2009:

From eMaxHealth.com...

Post-Recession Incomes Will Be Hit Hard By Health Care Spending

According to a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) by Daniel Polsky, Ph.D., and David Grande, M.D., M.P.A, of the University of Pennsylvania's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.

Using a series of vignettes premised on typical health care budgets for a mixture of income levels, the authors found that wage growth for middle class workers will no longer be sufficient to keep pace with the rapidly escalating costs of health care. As health care swallows a larger proportion of their family budget, standards of living will decline.

"For many families, one inevitable solution will be dropping private health insurance coverage altogether," write the authors.

In other words, even when the economy turns the corner, the problem of health care won't go away.

The authors emphasize that the key to affordable health care for all is decisive action to contain health care costs. However the authors caution that for health care reform based on private health insurance to be genuinely affordable, it will also require shifts in the distribution of health care costs within the population.

The piece, "The Burden of Health Care Costs for Working Families -- Implications for Reform," notes that absolute increases in income for the nation as a whole are outpacing absolute increases in health care spending, suggesting that health care spending is not eroding the overall capacity to purchase other goods and services. But this is not the case for an increasing number of middle class families.

--snip--

The authors note that as family income increases, employee-paid and employer-paid premiums as a percentage of overall compensation decreases. In other words, middle-income families pay a larger percentage of their income in the form of health care premiums and forgo a larger percentage of what would have been direct income to themselves compared to upper-income families.

For example, health care expenditures, which represent 25 percent of a two-income family's total $48,000 compensation, consist of employee-paid premiums and out-of pocket expenses (8.6 percent) and health care premiums paid by an employer with wages that the family otherwise would have received, and by the government from a share of the taxes paid by the family (16.5 percent). In the case of a family with a combined income of $97,000, health care accounts for 16.7 percent of the compensation, with employee-paid premiums and out-of pocket expenses totaling 6.4 percent and employer contributions and taxes totaling 12.2 percent.

Finally, at the $175,000 level, health care accounts for 13.9 percent of a family's compensation -- with 2.6 percent being employee-paid premiums and out-of pocket expenses and 11.3 coming in the form of employer contributions and taxes.

continues at this link

The following is the chart from:

The Burden of Health Care Costs for Working Families -- Implications for Reform

Compensation Remaining after Health Care Expenditures for U.S. Households with Various Income Levels.

The proportion of total compensation devoted to health care includes expenses for health care for the worker and his or her family, forgone wages due to the employer's expenses for health insurance premiums, and the proportion of taxes that support government health care programs. Our assumptions about real income growth (0.6% for the median income level, 1.0% for the 80th percentile of income, and 1.5% for the 95th percentile of income) and growth in health care spending (3.0%) are based on 30-year historical trends.

SPECIFIC TO MEDICARE AND RETIREES


My wife and I (when I hit the Big-50) have been associated with the Alliance for Retired Americans through our union affiliations ever since 1996 when the organization was known as the The National Council on the Aging. Of course we had been contacted by AARP, but we felt the NCA and since 2001 the Alliance for Retired Americans was better oriented to our personal belief in grassroots efforts to reach out to, not just those of retirement age, but to all working people within the community.

Below is a quick overview  of the Alliance relating to the ongoing health reform efforts with some key links provided:

The Alliance for Retired Americans believes that any health care reform passed by Congress must:

• Allow Medicare to negotiate volume discounts with drug manufacturers.  The Veterans Administration does this and its prescriptions cost 30 percent less.
  
• End wasteful taxpayer subsidies to private insurance companies who run Medicare Advantage programs at a cost nearly 20 percent higher than Medicare.
  
• Provide early retirees the option to purchase Medicare coverage.  Many of the 5.1 million Americans between 55-64 who lack health insurance are victims of mass layoffs.
  
• Close the "donut hole" in Medicare Part D coverage.

NOTE: Updated Links Below as of August 2009:


Frequently Asked Questions (html)

The following links are in PDF format

Fact Sheet - Health Insurance Reform Myths August 13, 2009

Fact Sheet - Health Care Reform and Seniors, August 2009

Health Insurance Reform Bill Comparison August 12, 2009

Legislative Conference Health Care Work Book

Comments to Senate Finance CommitteeMedicare Buy-in

Comments to Senate FinanceHealth Care Financing Options

Issue Brief: Retirees and Health Care Reform

Issue Brief: Stop Medicare Privatization

Issue Brief: Medicare Part D

Please keep in mind that this post is NOT a request for anyone to join The Alliance for Retired Americans.

This has been provided as an additional source of current timely information related to the upcoming efforts with the reform of the health care issue.

~OGD~