Health care in today's World
Now I tend to not blog about topics like politics or health care unless I'm moved to speak out. Today is one of those days. Have you ever heard of Consumer Driven Health Care? Well I once worked at one of the companies that championed that concept. Instead of providing an 80/20 PPO plan they came up with the idea of health savings accounts (HSA) and health reimbursement accounts (HRA).
The goal of this company was to provide a workable solution for lowering health care costs across the board. To do this they came up with the idea that the patient has the option to find out how much a procedure costs and decide where they want that procedure performed. You are given X number of dollars into your account and all medical expenses will come out of that account till it's exhausted. Then you'll move to a traditional 80/20 plan until you hit your annual maximum. On most plans the original HRA/HSA amount spent goes towards the annual maximum.
Where the HRA plans tend to fail is for older employees that have chronic health issues. Often the older plans are better for them because they end up getting a more balanced payment. Often these people are better suited for an HSA plan. The HSA plan is kind of liek a 401k for health care expenses. You put money into an interest baring account tax free up to $3000 for an individual and $6000 for a family. Some plans allow you to have an HRA and an HSA plan so you can double up.
I think these consumer plans are the first step to the true health care reform. The next step has to be removing health care as a work benefit. Right now I pay $250 a month for my HRA plan from work and the company puts $2000 in my account each year. I have no idea what the company pays for this plan. What I propose is shopping for health insurance just like you would for car insurance. This insurance would strictly be for major medical issues and then you could choose to have a HRA or HSA account to help pay for the small incidentals or regular checkups.
If companies dropped health care as a benefit would they pass that savings on to their employees though higher pay? Maybe or maybe not. Still if I could save $3000 a year and put that towards private health insurance it would be me picking the best plan for my family. I think this plan will cause office visit rates to drop and it might even mean better customer service like on time appointments. What the health care industry needs is old fashioned capitalism, let the free market decide the cost of medical services. Unfortunately a more socialist big government plan is where health care reform seems to be where our country is heading.
The goal of this company was to provide a workable solution for lowering health care costs across the board. To do this they came up with the idea that the patient has the option to find out how much a procedure costs and decide where they want that procedure performed. You are given X number of dollars into your account and all medical expenses will come out of that account till it's exhausted. Then you'll move to a traditional 80/20 plan until you hit your annual maximum. On most plans the original HRA/HSA amount spent goes towards the annual maximum.
Where the HRA plans tend to fail is for older employees that have chronic health issues. Often the older plans are better for them because they end up getting a more balanced payment. Often these people are better suited for an HSA plan. The HSA plan is kind of liek a 401k for health care expenses. You put money into an interest baring account tax free up to $3000 for an individual and $6000 for a family. Some plans allow you to have an HRA and an HSA plan so you can double up.
I think these consumer plans are the first step to the true health care reform. The next step has to be removing health care as a work benefit. Right now I pay $250 a month for my HRA plan from work and the company puts $2000 in my account each year. I have no idea what the company pays for this plan. What I propose is shopping for health insurance just like you would for car insurance. This insurance would strictly be for major medical issues and then you could choose to have a HRA or HSA account to help pay for the small incidentals or regular checkups.
If companies dropped health care as a benefit would they pass that savings on to their employees though higher pay? Maybe or maybe not. Still if I could save $3000 a year and put that towards private health insurance it would be me picking the best plan for my family. I think this plan will cause office visit rates to drop and it might even mean better customer service like on time appointments. What the health care industry needs is old fashioned capitalism, let the free market decide the cost of medical services. Unfortunately a more socialist big government plan is where health care reform seems to be where our country is heading.
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