I’ve been vocally frustrated on this blog about the health care situation in the US for almost 18 months now. I’ve been personally frustrated for longer. As much of the national dialog has shifted to focus on the government and what it can do (and really, that is a wild card at this point), it is interesting that not much has changed. Interesting but unsurprising. And I do think it is an underrated threat to US dominance in global business and innovation.
How much say do employers have in all of this? For better or worse, they’ve been along for the ride as much as employees. They’ve been taking the brunt of the heat as insurers pressure them to use wellness plans and other poorly laid out incentives to bring down their rates a couple of percentage points. They’ve taken the brunt of the heat when premium payments for employees go up. It is no wonder that many of these companies are looking for answers.
In reality, most of these “innovations” in the health care are stop gap solutions at best and don’t address some of the key figures that continue to push health care costs further out of reach.
This Thursday and Friday, I will be attending the Employee Health Care Conference in New York as a guest of The Conference Board to see what else is going on in health care. Are insurers responding? How are they working together with employers? Will any of this mean anything with the possibility of reform?
Do you have any curiosities or questions you want answered from the Employee Health Care conference?
February 22, 2010 at 7:36 am
Lance,
One thing that has always puzzled me is why big business isn’t more on board with separating health insurance from employment. If it were a totally different model (yeah yeah, socialized medicine, blah blah blah, just work with me here), think of all the time, money and effort business could save by not having to administer health care beneifts. Now, what does that new model look, feel and taste like? I don’t know, I’ll leave that up to fancy gatherings like The Conference Board to figure out. I just think that it’s odd that big business seems resigned to the model that health care insurance has to come through employment.
February 22, 2010 at 2:14 pm
It has puzzled me too Robert. I know there is a reasoning there about control of costs (once you agree to give up that benefit in exchange for higher taxes, you lose control over your costs to a certain extent) but I mean, it is already out of control.
I don’t have any problem with the idea philosophically. I just think if that’s the way we want to go, there has to be some better practices and cost controls in place.
February 22, 2010 at 8:56 am
I hope the employers will do something about this. This is one way of protecting the employees.
February 22, 2010 at 1:53 pm
I will concur with Robert, and ask why Ford, GM, Chrysler, or any Fortune 500 company not in health care, is in the business of health care? I belong to our Benefits committee for our college and a significant percentage of our meetings regards health care for our employees.
February 22, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Thanks for writing on a topic that is troubling many of us today, Lance. I’d like to know if there is any momentum for employers to start forming a consortium and self-insure…possibly along vertical industry lines or similar.
February 23, 2010 at 7:18 am
The National Assosiaction of Manufacturers published an interesting document called “The Facts About Modern Manufacturing.” One of the topics it covers is the way that health care costs impact the global competitiveness of US companies. Although they point to the health care systems of Canada, France, Germany and the UK as examples of how much less other developed nations spend on healthcare, they somehow fail to connect the dots between single payer/government controlled systems and lower costs.
My question is why do business leaders cling to the capitalist ideology of for-profit healthcare when it so clearly doesn’t serve the interests of the nation or the larger business community?
February 25, 2010 at 3:49 pm
I hope employers have some answers, because the government obviously doesn’t have any! I also hope the conference is going well; looking forward to what you learn there.