“The reality is the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable for an increasing number of people,” stated Governor Dayton on October 12, 2016.
I keep hearing about how much more people in Southeast Minnesota are going to have to pay for health insurance premiums. A friend of mine in Fountain just told me that his premium is increasing to $3,000 per month ($36,000/yr) with a $12,000 deductible. My friend would have to spend $48,000 in one year before health insurance would pay a single penny toward their healthcare costs. And, then when the new year begins on January 1, premium and deductible investment starts at $0 again. Over a 10 year period, a person could spend more than $400,000 on healthcare.
And, while I could beat up the issue of how over $400 million was exhausted on the website development of www.mnsure.org that was not spent directly on those in need of healthcare, I won’t.
The reality is that health insurance costs were going to increase 20% to 30% per year without the Affordable Care Act.
Back when I was publisher of The La Porte County Herald-Argus in northwest Indiana for nearly six years, every year we had to budget for an increase in our employee health insurance premium expenses – ranging from 20% to 30% — every year. So, our health insurance premium costs were doubling every three to five years back in the early 2000s.
The Affordable Care Act has over-promised and under-delivered, which was predictable. But, my concern has less to do with the insurance side of the ACA and more so to do with the issue of healthcare costs.
We have focused on health insurance reform, but we should have focused our resources on the cost of healthcare.
Surgery vs. X-rays?
Back in November 2012, I battled with a bout of kidney stones. I had contended with this ailment once in February 2007, so I was unfortunately experienced. In 2007, I had to have surgery to remove the stones, because they would not pass after nearly one month of excruciating pain and weight loss. In 2012, it was the same scenario.
After visiting with physicians of the urology department of the Mayo Clinic, they concluded I had kidney stones lodged in the ureter again according to X-rays. After three weeks of my suffering, they concluded that surgery was inevitable. The evening before my scheduled surgery, I thought I passed the kidney stone.
When I arrived at the hospital the next day, while sitting in my room hours before surgery, I asked to speak with one of the surgeons. Two surgeons visited with me, and I told them that I thought I had passed my kidney stone so I didn’t think I would need surgery.
And, they both insisted to proceed with the surgery. I requested an X-ray to determine the status of the kidney stone. Both surgeons denied that request, and indicated we were just going to proceed with surgery.
When I awoke from anesthesia, one of the surgeons walked into my recovery room and told me that I must have passed the kidney stone – as they didn’t find them during surgery.
My total bill for that surgery was a little over $10,000. How much would an X-ray cost? Probably not $10,000. My surgery was unnecessary, which could have been proven with a less invasive and less expensive X-ray. It makes me wonder if doctors work on commission…
Full disclosure
If you visit your dentist or auto mechanic, they will tell you how much it will cost for services. If you need a crown, your dentist will give you some options along with prices. If you need your tires replaced, your mechanic will tell you how soon he’d recommend that you get new tires and tell you about some pricing options.
When you visit a hospital, nobody tells you how much anything will cost. You don’t find out until the bills start arriving in your mailbox.
We need full disclosure of costs. If our government wants to get involved in the healthcare business such as they did with the ACA, they need to regulate healthcare costs.
We need to reduce healthcare costs in order to get the insurance costs down, before the system bankrupts middle class America.
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