America needs to take “simple, common sense actions” to lower healthcare costs, according to Sen. Rubio. Such actions include “allowing individuals to purchase health insurance across state lines, encouraging small businesses to band together to form Association Health Plans, giving individuals the same tax breaks given to businesses, incentivizing the use of electronic medical records, giving people tools to make cost-conscious decisions, increasing the number of community health centers, incentivizing state medical malpractice reform, enhancing Health Savings Accounts, pursuing medical malpractice reform and adopting a sensible program to cover those with pre-existing conditions,” according to his website. SOURCE: Becker’s Hospital Review
Here are the views you need to watch for in the upcoming presidential primaries and election. What alternatives to Obamacare are being offered?
If this is an example of what we will be offered, we are in big trouble. With these proposals presented as ways to lower health care costs, there is a clear demonstration of a lack of understanding of the problem.
Health insurance premiums are not health care costs, they reflect the cost of health care and more.
Recall that insurers are limited in their administrative costs to 20% of premium. That includes all claim processing, salaries, medical management, advertising and more. In other words, at least 80% of your premium ( and usually quite a bit more) is used to pay for health care. So what do tax breaks, where you buy insurance and even malpractice have to do with your claims? Not much‼️
If 100% of the administrative costs are entirely eliminated for the highest cost insurer, an impossibility of course, a monthly premium of $500 may be reduced by $100. Realistically though, we may be lucky if there was a 5% savings or $300 a year.
This health care market driven, competitive rhetoric coming from the right, is as naive as the Social Security views of Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders. Rubio and others focus on the reimbursement system as if it is the primary driver of health care spending, it’s not‼️
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 