The administrative waste of private insurers along with the excessive administrative burden they place on the health care delivery system alone is more than enough to warrant dismissing them as stewards of our health care dollars. A more fundamental moral reason to dismiss them is that they place service to patients in a secondary position to their efforts to achieve business success, frequently using dishonest deception to do so.

Families USA has continued to be a source of highly credible studies demonstrating the severe deficiencies in health care financing in the United States. A prime example is this study of COBRA benefits. Although the intent of COBRA was to allow individuals and families to maintain their employer-sponsored coverage after losing their jobs, this study demonstrates that this is yet another failed policy as unemployed individuals are unable to pay for that coverage.

For those who would like to have a better understanding of the various Congressional approaches to reform, this report is very helpful. The Lewin Group analysis brings reality to the claims being made by the proponents of each approach.

A frequent complaint about government financing of health care is that government bureaucrats place an excessive administrative burden on the health care delivery system. This charge has already been refuted by studies demonstrating the much greater administrative excesses and waste of the private insurance industry when contrasted with a public program such as Medicare.

So, another ho-hum report on the bad behavior of a private insurer. And more fines that for these insurers are only a nominal and routine part of doing business. Is this really the way we should be financing care in the United States? Set up rules for the private insurers and then rap their knuckles when they misbehave?

This annual CMS report on health care spending is being celebrated in headlines throughout the nation as demonstrating a slowing in the growth of health care spending. Such headlines are missing the terrible news in this report.

As long as we insist that health care continue to be financed through our dysfunctional, fragmented multi-payer system, we will continue to see more innovative middlemen organizations capturing and siphoning away dollars that should be directed to health care instead.

Josh Freeman’s comments were selected to start off this year of reform (hopefully) because they set the theme that reform should not be simply about tweaking private and public insurance options; reform needs to be about fundamental restructuring of our health care financing and delivery systems.

Health Economists’ Views of Health Policy
By Michael A. Morrisey and John Cawley
Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law
August 2008
This article reports the views of a national survey of U.S. health economists on a series of questions ranging from mergers among health care providers to the profits of pharmaceutical manufacturers to fundamental health care reform. We [...]

And for reform, our nation’s political leaders are going to bring us… even more of the same?