I began my last blog by referencing the CNN debate between Senators Cruz and Sanders on February 7. What was interesting is that Senator Sanders and Cruz were not that far off from what they want to provide for Americans, i.e. affordable healthcare coverage for all Americans. However, where they do differ is on how they intend to achieve this goal. When Cruz talks about Healthcare Savings Accounts, make no mistake that if you have a lot of disposable income to invest into a savings account, you’ll have a greater likelihood of “surviving” a health crisis. Unfortunately, those millions of Americans who live paycheck-to-paycheck and barely have enough income to pay for essentials like feeding their family, paying rent or mortgages, paying utility bills. Without a lot of disposable income, a Healthcare Savings Account can be easily wiped out in one visit to an emergency room or one MRI.
Cruz also referred to the “29ers” and “49ers” in referencing how American companies tried to deal with the Obamacare. So by employing workers for less than 30 hours a week (i.e. part time), those companies were exempt for needing to provide healthcare to their employees hence there were many Americans now working 29 hours or less. Also companies who employed 49 or fewer employees full time were also exempt from having to provide workers with health insurance. Hence the term “49ers” that Senator Cruz referenced. He also concluded that this was one of the reasons why American companies were not growing or hiring in spite of Bureau of Labor Statistics, which indicated drops in unemployment. Obviously, this also contributed to a slowing of economic growth by penalizing small companies that employed more than 49 employees.
Now let’s return to the 2016 election. When Trump was not threatening to have Hillary Clinton locked up, he made it point of stating that on “day one” he would dismantle the Affordable Healthcare Act thereby putting an end, once and for all, to Obamacare. Many credit FBI Director James Comey with sealing Hillary Clinton’s fate, but there was something even more troubling that was occurring. When Americans received their healthcare premium bills in October, 2016, they were whacked with huge increases in quarterly or monthly premiums. So although most would like to credit Comey with Trump’s victory, kudos really go to the major healthcare insurance giants AETNA, CIGNA, Humana, AmeriHealth, and QualCare, which hit the American public with huge increases in their monthly premiums and deductibles just prior to the election.
And the real horror in all this was that the American public was duped into believing that President Obama was to blame for these increases. As if Obama called up the insurance corporate CEOs and said, “Time for a price increase in health insurance." But the American public bought it hook, line, and sinker and therefore blamed Obama and Obamacare/ACA. So one of the inconvenient truths of Obamacare was that Obama was not the problem, it was the healthcare companies and those congressmen and congresswomen that are essential “bought off” through campaign finance contributions from healthcare lobbyists who destroyed the essence of what Obamacare was trying to accomplish.
It was truly a wonder that Obama was able to persuade the healthcare giants into drop pre-existing clauses and to allow parents to keep their sons and daughters on their healthcare plans until age 26. But the healthcare industry was always one step ahead of the Obama administration by raising premiums and hitting the American public with huge deductibles. Remember, a deductible is the amount the policy holder is responsible for BEFORE their healthcare insurance will pay a portion of the doctor’s or hospital charges. The healthcare industry not only raised deductibles but also began doing some really tricky things like including separate deductibles for mental health/substance abuse coverage versus health coverage. So if you have a $5000 annual deductible changes are you won’t even come close to reaching that amount. Essentially you’ve paid out of pocket for a year for your healthcare expenses while the healthcare industry has been reaping profits from your monthly premiums. What a business model. No wonder the CEO’s of AETNA, CIGNA, QualCare command multimillion dollar salaries ,not including their annual bonuses and severance packages which also mount into millions of dollars.
And what do these CEOs do in order to earn these incredible salaries? Have they created a cure for cancer? Do they cure the sick and lame? No, their job is to post huge profits for their shareholders. So now, Senator Cruz and other Republican representatives want us to trust insurance companies, to trust the free market and to trust that the healthcare corporations will act in our best interest. Does he really believe that the healthcare CEOs are going to take a pay cut in order to make healthcare more affordable? Does he believe that the healthcare lobbyist will refrain from “buying off” congress by way of contributions to their re-election campaigns? Senator Sanders spoke of the problems that Americans have when they try to contact their health insurance companies to resolve claims. How it often takes hours before you can talk to a human being and then it’s interesting you never get a last name of the person you’re speaking to. Even the so-called insurance healthcare case managers never identify their degree or training. Why is that?
The CNN debate last Tuesday avoided some of these important questions and both Senators Sanders and Cruz seemed to skirt around the issue that we seem to be going from a three-tier healthcare system to perhaps a two-tier system. What I mean by a three-tier health care system is that Tier 1 would include the wealthy and well-employed who can afford excellent healthcare coverage.Tier 2 is for those who are underemployed or who have poor healthcare coverage with either high premiums and low deductibles or lower premiums and high deductible or both high premiums and high deductibles and Tier 3 includes the 30 million Americans without healthcare coverage who use emergency rooms as their family doctor in times of severe illness. A two-tier system would essentially include healthcare for the wealthy and one for the poor. It remains to be seen what TrumpCare will bring (other than huge tax cuts to the wealthy) and whether President Trump can stand up to the healthcare companies and congress to fulfill his campaign promise to offer Americans something “better” than ObamaCare. According to the recent healthcare bill passed by the House of Representatives last week, it doesn’t appear that the American public will be getting better healthcare coverage any time soon. Util then just pray you don’t get sick.
