The program reviews how a number of capitalist democracies provide universal healthcare for their citizens at lower cost per person and with better health statistics that we achieve here in the US. The way each country funds and provides its healthcare is different. The one thing they all have in common is that insurers, healthcare providers, and pharmaceutcal companies are all regulated and the cost of their products or services are controlled.

I have been getting my healthcare coverage through my local chamber of commerce (from a variety of Mass-based insurance companies; Tufts, Neighborhood Health, and Fallon). Every year, my premiums have increased by double digit percentages without explanation or justification.

And, from what I read here and elsewhere, I am not alone in that experience. Nowhere else in the economy does one see relentless increases on that scale. And, in the long run, this is unsustainable. Very few individuals or businesses have incomes or revenues increasing 15%, 20%, 39% per year.

And our politicians just do not seem to “get it.” The Republicans are simply pursuing a mindless vendetta against Obama and are contributing nothing to solving this healthcare problem that affects all Americans regardless of their political leanings.

And the Democrats have shown themselves to be both politically inept, and largely subservient to the healthcare special interests. The idea, in the recent Democratic bill, that an American citizen would be penalized $8,000 per year for failing to purchase insurance from a private insurer when there would seem to be no controls proposed on the coverage and cost that the private insurer provides is basically a sick joke that only a lobbyist or a Congressman would fine funny.

The irony, of course, is that we will, inevitably, have cost controls because the increase in healthcare costs is simply unsustainable. Unless we do something meaningful to control systemic healthcare costs (i.e. at all levels, insurers, hospitals, drug companies) then sometime in the next 5 or 10 years, no one who isn’t a Wall Street banker will be able to afford coverage at all… The average middle class salary is not increasing by 25% or more per year. At what happens then… We all get penalized $8,000 and have no coverage at all?

Doug Denholm
Chemical Engineer
Salem, MA

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has the Group Insurance Commission for its employees and has recently allow municipal employees to participate, providing a very large pool with which to negotiate with insurers. Those municipalities not choosing to join the GIC can work with Massachusetts Inter-Local Insurance Association to gain more favorable rates. These options, or something like it, are not available for the small businesses in Massachusetts.

Health insurance premiums have become one of our companies largest single monthly line items. A continuing upward spiral in premiums will have a very negative impact on our business. This is a cost that we simply cannot just pass on through our product pricing.

I do not have a solution to the health care problem , but I do believe that our current system is unsustainable.

I cannot help but think this increase is a result of pending heath care reform.
Insurers are grabbing it while they can in a last ditch effort.
Surely, their costs have not increased by the same percentage.

We sole proprietors seem to bear the brunt of this, as usual.

I think the government had it right when they said they would ring out the inefficiency and fraud in the system. I have not heard any information on if this was acheived or attempted, very disappointing.

Health Insurance pricing like any other expense is tied to cost of providing the service. Cost needs to be identified, scrutinized and lowered to what is necessary to do the job in an acceptable fashion. All cost dollars should actually be delivering a measurable benefit to the system. If there is little benfit overall from legitimate delivrables then these would need to be adressed secondarily to see if the cost associated makes sense.

There is no question that Health Insurance cost are holding back jobs and small business growth. I have been battling the ever increasing health insurance cost for 20 years and it is now an over bearing burden. Slowing small business job creation is not good for this country.

One cause of litigation is inflated expectations about what is a reasonable medical outcome. Another cause is, of course, medical incompetence. Even if a physician is not at fault, the patient may still have issues. That’s why some form of case management and followup is important.

Patients need to be made as whole as possible when serious errors occur. Physicians and other health care providers need to be free of unnecessary legal entanglements. Our culture of assigning blame when life is not perfect must be addressed rationally.