Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 11, 2003
National health insurance inevitable?
Highmark CEO makes the case, says it may be solution to spiraling costs
By Pamela Gaynor
In spite of the wider role Congress created for private insurers in the recently enacted Medicare reform bill, the chief executive officer of the region’s largest health insurer yesterday said he believes the country will inevitably move toward a national health insurance plan for all age groups.
(Dr. Kenneth Melani, CEO of Highmark, Inc., when giving a speech at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health)… said a host of factors have driven double-digit increases in health care costs across the country the past four years, including technology, greater consumer demand from an aging population, litigation and labor costs. The increases, he said, had come without corresponding gains in life expectancy, earning much of the technology has proven to have dubious value.
With health care costs now accounting for roughly 15 cents of every dollar of the nation’s economic activity, he predicted a backlash among voters.
At some point, “Democrats will get into office and say the Republicans have made a big mistake. There will be sweeping reform and then we’ll have national health insurance,” Melani said. “That’s where I think we’ll end up.
I can’t say when.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03345/249907.stm
Comment: Highmark, Inc., a non-profit, Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate, is the nation’s 11th-largest health insurer. As Highmark’s CEO, Dr. Melani has diligently followed the trends and shifting opinions in health care. As a noted insurance industry leader, his opinions certainly have credibility.
National health insurance is absolutely inevitable. It remains to be seen whether the politicians will have the courage to enact a program that ensures equity, comprehensiveness, affordability, and administrative efficiency through a publicly-administered and publicly-funded model.
It’s our task to be certain that everyone does understand the superiority of the public model.