The economic stimulus bill currently making its way through Congress contains provisions designed to help the recently unemployed pay for health insurance coverage while out of work.

Statistics show that health insurance coverage is the single biggest non-housing expense for individuals and families who find themselves in between job. Many people join the ranks of the uninsured, rather than pay for expensive COBRA coverage, or private health insurance. (In fact only 8% of those eligible actually pay for existing coverage under the COBRA plan).

The current bill, if approved by both the House and the Senate, would pay 65% of the premium of former workers who lost or will lose their jobs between Septempber 1st 2008, and December 31st, 2009.

For the unemployed, another option is temporary health insurance, which provides coverage for hospitalization at a fraction of the cost of a traditional health plan. However, these types of policies generally last only 6 months.

I flew across the country yesterday, and had the pleasure and honor of flying with real, true American hero, Lt. Colonel Lee Archer of the 322nd Air Expeditionary Group, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

Mr. Archer was returning from the Presidential Inauguration at which he and many of his comrades had been guests of honor.

I have to say, that despite a knee injury, which visibly hobbled him, Mr. Archer was probably the spryest 89-year old man I have ever seen. It’s hard to explain, but he just had that “alive” look in his eyes, that kids playing ball on summer afternoons have. He looked like he was ready to live another 89 years.

I talked with his daughter-in-law for a bit, and together with a flight attendant, we talked about the subject of aging, and aging well. The F/A told us that her grandfather had recently passed, at the ripe age of 108. One hundred and eight!!!

What was his (and Mr. Archer’s) secret to such happy longevity?

Don’t drink, don’t smoke, and only eat food "out of your own hand" she quoted him as saying. Meaning, live a healthy life, and your body will reward you with a long and happy life.

The “don’t smoke” part is obvious (don’t smoke, and if you do, find a way to quit!), but the “don’t drink” part is a little tougher for most of us. Come on, who doesn’t enjoy a beer or three occasionally?

The thing that intrigued me the most about her grandfather’s statement was the “eat food out of your own hand” bit. Meaning, only eat what you yourself prepare – don’t eat out too much.

If you know what goes into your body, you can control what your body is burning for fuel. This is probably the most important, and the most often overlooked part of wellness. Fresh, unprocessed food is what our bodies evolved to “run on”, and keeping your diet as close to that primitive ideal will insure that our bodies run optimally. Like a well-tuned, taken-care-of engine of a car that runs for 20 years, our bodies, if taken care of well, will also run well for many, many years.


I for one am going to prepare all my own food today, even as I drink a glass or two of wine with dinner. But no cigarettes!

Like millions (billions?) of people around the world, I watched President Barack Obama's inauguration speech yesterday, in awe of the hope and optimism that he engendered with a few simple words.


In his great speech, the President mentioned health care only twice, and then only in passing:

Our health care is too costly;

and

We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost.

These two statements alone might not be enough to make one hopeful that great change in health care is coming, but taken together with the President's stated goal of overhauling the way that our nation pays its doctor bills, they show that the Administration considers the matter to be of utmost importance.


Now, whether or not soon-to-be Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Daschle will be able to push through the President's health care agenda in Congress remains to be seen. Certainly, the Democratic Party having control of both houses creates a perfect storm of opportunity to finally get something done in the reform arena, but as we saw in the 90's (with Hillary Clinton's ill-fated attempt at health care overhaul), sometimes all the good intentions and political will are not enough to overcome the entrenched special interest in Washington. (That would be the pharma, hospital, and most importantly, insurance lobbies).


Will we see the change that we're promised? That remains to be seen. But we can at the very least be hopeful, which is a nice change from the previous fifteen years.

In February of 2008, the New York State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, made a big splash by announcing that his office would investigate, and very possibly sue major health insurance carriers in the state over what were alleged to have been fraudulent billing practices.

“We believe there was an industrywide scheme perpetuated by some of the nation’s largest health insurers to deceive and defraud consumers,” Mr. Cuomo said at the time.

Well, lo and behold, one of the suits was settled today, by none other than UnitedHealth Group, the state's biggest insurer.

As part of the settlement with the state, the insurer admitted to no wrongdoing, however, it agreed to pay the state $50 million, which will ostensibly be used to set up a non-for profit independent billing company.

At the heart of the lawsuit were the billing practices of UnitedHealth and its competitors, who were accused of forcing patients to pay more for out-of-network care than the established market rates dictated.

How did these companies pull this off? UnitedHealth Group created a subsidiary, Ingenix Inc. which dictated the fees (co-payments, co-insurance, and such), that patients paid. But since Ingenix was in essence a part of UnitedHealth, there was an inherent conflict of interest, a conflict which, as the NY Attorney General proved, amounted to at least a $50 million fraud.

Score one for the good guys.

More on this story from MSNBC.

Nice piece in the Huffington Post today on the Republican myths about the health care reform bugaboo.

MYTH -- HEALTH REFORM WILL LIMIT PATIENT CHOICE:

In a recent editorial published in the Washington Times, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) argued that what health care reform really means "is limiting freedom -- the freedom to choose a doctor, to take your health care with you when you switch jobs, to make personal medical decisions." Similarly, Michael Cannon, director of health care policy at the Cato Institute, charged that "the Left's idea of limiting Medicare spending is to have bureaucrats tell Mom she cannot have the cancer treatment she wants."

This, of course, is something we always hear from the conservative wing of the conservative party: their irrational fear of government (and their desire to please insurers), causes them to spew venom and lies about the reality of the need for reform. And even though the entire country seems to have realized that the need for reform is real, they will continue to try to scare everyone into inaction.

The piece continues:

In reality, progressive proposals for health reform would offer more choice, not less. Americans will have the choice to keep the employer plan they currently have or buy an affordable plan from the national insurance exchange. Individuals and small businesses will be able to "compare private coverage options and a public plan and to purchase the policy that would work best for them." Moreover, rather than ration treatments, investment into the comparative effectiveness of treatments will help identify the procedures that provide the best results at the lowest cost. According to a study conducted by the RAND corporation, at least one-third of medical procedures have questionable benefits. Thus, progressive proposals will allow mom and her doctor to choose the best treatment for her cancer.

Read the whole article

If there is to be one lasting lesson that we should learn from the current economic crisis, let it be that the health care industry in the United States is sick. Three of the most iconic companies in our history, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, are on the verge of bankruptcy not because of Wall Street shenanigans, but rather because they can no longer remain in business while meeting their obligations towards their employees' health care costs.


In fact, for every car or truck that GM sells, more than $2000 goes directly to the fund that the automakers have set up to deal with the ever-expanding costs of providing insurance to their employees, past and present. And you thought it was all about subprime mortgages.


Things look bleak for the automakers now, and for the economy in general; health care expenditures are a big part of the problem.


But there are solutions.


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