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Comrade Romney, your proof of health insurance, please!

Posted by Brett Allen on Friday, June 06, 2008 9:40:54 AM

Massachusetts is eight time zones east of Moscow, and yet, in some ways, it might as well be located on the doorstep of Minsk. The old Minsk. Well, today's Minsk. Minsk hasn't changed much since the Soviet Union expired.

To deny that Massachusetts is a little left of the rest of the union would be akin to calling Vermont "Bush Country." But, it's not Massachusetts or the masses of oppressed Massachusetts masses that earn today's Hammer & Sickle award. That honor goes to the Commonwealth's former governor, Mitt Romney.

Mr. Romney, you'll recall, recently ran for president. With a straight face and his typical motor-mouthed delivery, he tried to convince us he was a conservative - small gov'ment, free markets and all that. But his legacy as governor will likely far out-live his tenure on the campaign trail, and for those with any memory, it should keep him off McCain's ticket and out of the White House for good. Here's why:

As governor, Romney was intent on solving the state's health care crises, if indeed one existed. He solved it by requiring every Massachusetts citizen to buy health insurance, whether or not he wanted it, needed it, or could afford it. There. Problem solved. Everyone's insured.

Unfortunately, two problems and one opportunity have arisen from Mr. Romney's health plan. The problems are that the program costs more to administer than promised (gov'ment programs always do) and the state will now fine anyone who can't cough up proof of health insurance coverage. Now that second problem, the fine, has turned out to be a revenue opportunity for the state - a silver lining! How lovely. Still, it's unsettling to have authorities in the USA dictating that citizens must have health insurance whether it's purchased privately or from the company store, the state. Tales of the costs of Romney-care popped up during the presidential campaign. This latest twist, the fine, is something that has received little attention outside Massachusetts.

Ever since George W. Bush won the White House on a nauseating platform of "compassionate conservatism," every Republican with a speck of presidential ambition has called himself a conservative. But, building huge expensive bureaucracies and bullying citizens into conforming to gov'ment-dictated behavior is hardly conservative. It's more akin to the socialism which should have been crushed when Soviet Russia and it's satellite dictatorships collapsed. Unfortunately, socialism never dies. Squash it here and it crops up there. It changes its name. It wears a mask. It even masquerades as conservatism. Today, it lives on in Massachusetts, in Cuba, in China, in Venezuela, and in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

If Mitt Romney still has political ambitions, let him run for mayor of Minsk.

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Health care at the corner Wal-Mart

Posted by Brett Allen on Friday, May 30, 2008 3:00:00 AM
Sometimes it takes a lot of money to be healthy. As my wife and I have hit mid-life, we've found it takes even more money to stay healthy. Body parts we never had to think about in our youth want attention now. Sometimes they want attention so badly, they'll throw a tantrum and send us to the emergency room. Every time our organs decide to act out, it costs us. And, in the past several years, our organs have acted out a lot.

Until recently, we were insured, medically speaking. Before hitting the mid-life wall, our health insurance premiums were affordable. We were younger and could manage our health with high deductibles which is akin to gambling. We bet that we wouldn't need much medical attention. We set the deductible high so our monthly premiums were low. It was an affordable health care strategy that worked for awhile. A yearly trip to the doctor and some out-of-pocket expenses - a piece of cake. Then along came my wife's stroke at the feeble age of -- 46. In the next couple of years we pooled between us a handful of new ailments: atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, back problems, allergies, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high anxiety, asthma, and insomnia. None of these ailments comes cheap. Each requires tests and treatment and lots of money.

Try balancing a household budget on $2500 MRI's, CT Scans, ultrasound's, $2000 shots, $720 back ablation procedures, $75 office visits (not counting the specialists), $600-$800 in monthly prescriptions, and insurance premiums that in '08 exceeded $400 per month. Now, asking that question, I know very well that many you face similar challenges although your conditions and costs vary. I'm being rhetorical so please don't egg me. In our case, being self-employed (and not trust fund babies), my wife and I had to sit down and get a handle on our health costs. We had to ask ourselves a hard question:  How were we going to afford the care we needed? Then, of course, came the followup question: Where could we cut costs?

First, we decided to stop having tests done. Now, not everyone can do this. If you're sick and your doctor is searching for what's causing your mysterious symptoms, he's got to order tests. But, for the most part, we know what's caused our illnesses. Some of our conditions can be alleviated by pills or inhalers. Others have no cure and will run their course as with atherosclerosis (or hardening of the arteries) and osteoporosis. Down the road, these conditions will cause us more pain and cost us more money, but that's longterm. Right now, we're dealing with the here and now.

Second, we looked at our prescription costs. Why, we wondered, were we paying nearly $300 for a month's supply of a chronic pain reliever -- WITH insurance? Good grief, what would that same drug cost without insurance? My wife did a little research and found out that it cost about $25. WHAT? Impossible! No it is possible, in fact, it's true. The generic version at Wal-Mart's pharmacy is $25. To get the generic version, our doctor had to specifically prescribe it. Unless my wife had bothered to do a little research and ask a few questions, we'd still be paying nearly $300. Our doctor would have continue to prescribe the expensive name-brand, the pharmacy we were using would still be charging us nearly $300, and our health insurance provider would have continued charging us more than $400 for the privilege of their monthly coverage. No one along the health care highway bothered to tell us how much money we could have been saving. As it turned out, we found that we could save money on all of our prescriptions. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up four prescriptions and spent a total of $20. Just months ago, I'd have picked up the same four scripts and spent a couple hundred dollars.

My point is not to shill for Wal-Mart's pharmacy. It's not to call for socialized medicine (God save us from national health care). It's not to bash health insurers. My point is that if health care, in general, were allowed to function like any other market-driven industry, we'd all be shopping for the best deal and we'd force all parts of the health care industry - doctors, hospitals, drug companies, insurance companies, and pharmacies - to compete for our business. I dare say we'd still enjoy excellent care but at lower prices.

By-the-way, we're making another gamble. We fired our health insurer and are shopping for more affordable coverage. We'll let you know what we find. In the meantime, if you have any advice, feel free to pass it along.

 

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