Healthcare Reform...into something worse!

As we can all see, Healthcare reform is going really well!?!?!?!  Let's get right to it.

First of all, how about those time-wasting attacks on the insurers?  Why are the insurance companies getting attacked by the White House, and other reporters who have no idea what they are talking about, when they have not done too much wrong?  When a professional evaluates an insurance company, they don't just look at the final product (the premiums) and say, "Oh, that's too much money....they are evil!"  A professional would look at the actual financial statements to begin to understand what was actually going on.  For instance, when looking at an insurance companies primary business, insuring, they do not make much off of it at all.  They keep the remainder after premiums are used to pay for claims, not to mention the rest of the overhead costs.  In example, WellPoint, an insurer at the top of Obama's hit-list, lost money in their insurance business.  But, yes, they did post huge profits, which was from their other business: INVESTING!  The insurers have great investment teams to bring in lots of revenue through the year, but as we all found out in 2007, investments are not secure sources of income.  And for this fact, the future expected revenues from the investments insurers make is not factored much into their insurance business.
So, who is the dummy here? Government!  If the Big House wants the insurers to use their dramatic profits in the actuarial process, then the government should insure their investments, like with a FDIC-type of entity.  Otherwise, shut-up and enjoy their profits, which keep stock values up, employees across all sectors in work, and the economy up.

Now, to Obama's Re(diculous)form.
The plan made a grand statement at the beginning stating that it would save somewhere around $1 Trillion over 10 years.  And now for the process by which that savings will happen.

Statement 1:  The plan will cost $950 Billion over 10 years.
Contradiction 1:  Cost = $.95T, Savings = $1T.....when using actual math, this equals a savings of $50B, which is a large sum, but nothing in the grand scheme of healthcare reform.

Statement 2:  Create a "Health Insurance Rate Authority" to control rates and restrict unfair rate increases.
Problem 2:  This "Authority" will be a waste of money and time.  If you remember the statement I made 10 lines up, the rates are as low as possible, even too low in some cases.  The immediate problems is the cost of care and the claims processes.  The claims process needs to be reinvented and completely flooded with information technology for efficiency and accuracy.  The cost of care cannot vary a whole lot.  Although doctors do get paid quite a bit, it is not always excessive compared to what they do.  But the costs they incur, such as in malpractice insurance, is extremely high, yet fair value considering the present state of Liability Law.      So, the only method to reducing costs of care is to drown the care health care sector with information technology.  I can talk about the implementation for another year, but we will just assume that a massive influx of IT would drastically improve the sector.

Statement 3:  National Exchange for purchasing Healthcare across state borders.
Response:  AWESOME!!!  Literally, this is the smartest thing any government official has said in a while.

Statement 4:  Preexisting conditions exclusion.  Making it illegal to deny overage to a person with preexisting health conditions.
Response 4:  Ehhhh....This is good, because insurers will not be able to deny coverage, but the cost to insure these people will be very high.  This has the potential of increasing costs for all other insureds.

Statement 5:  By Year "X", it will be illegal to not have health insurance.  Additionally, the government will be spending lots of money in tax credits and incentives to low-income families to get insurance.
Problem 5:  And so, the government is going to spend American tax dollars on subsidizing insurance premiums for low-income families, because it will be illegal for people to not have healthcare....So middle and upper class citizens will be subsidizing the health insurance of low-income families because law requires them to have it.  Wow, that's a mess!  What happens when the subsidies stop?

Speaking of messes, I am not even going to touch the subject of Medicare or Medicaid.  It is a hole in the pocket of America, but very helpful to those who cannot afford the dynamic increases in care.  WAIT...the cost of care?  Maybe there is a way to reduce that?!?!  It's like deja-vu.

And finally, the $65 Billion assessment on health insurers, is delayed...by a 3 years.  Yes, let's tax them $65B on top of the taxes they already pay, reducing their revenues, reducing stock price, and potentially hurting some of the economy.

Well, if you read carefully, you would be more confused then ever before.  You do not need a financial mathematics master's degree to figure this one out; to figure out that this plan has no form of investments that will bring money back to the economy, increase the supply of sustainable jobs, reduce the cost of care, etc.  Bottom line, this plan is a disaster.

This is what I vow to our Commander in Chief: I will gladly approve a $5 Trillion Healthcare stimulus that consists only of investments in information technology for the sector, improving the claims process, creating a single, nation-wide electronic medical record system, health insurance exchange, full implementation of IT in health systems and facilities covering all of the daily processes (such as data input and diagnosis), etc.  This creates an abundance of job openings, brings wealth into the economy, improves care and claims, and will provide many other advantages.  


Maybe the People will appoint me as Washington's "Healthcare Czar."
Who will vote for me?

Funny Munny

     Maybe we should have listened to Chairman Eccles (Fed Chair, post Great Depression) when he told us that too much debt caused the Depression of the 1920's.  Or maybe we, the people, did listen to him, but were blinded by the sexy and promising "derivative" contracts.  These contracts are more complicated and full of lies than a reality show, but that's another discussion.  No matter what the cause, the users abused the system, and IT happened.

     My favorite part of this is how the Houses and Chief are playing Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition with each other, where they think they can "wheel and deal [their] way to a fortune even faster using debit cards instead of cash! All it takes is a card swipe for [endless] money to change hands." (hasbro.com)  And so they just keep pushing money into America's torn pocket, where it just falls back out and NOTHING happens, as we can clearly see.  Thank [insert name of to whom you pray, or not] for Chairman Bernanke's tactical use of Fed artillery and special forces teams, steadily reviving the market, as well as managing the mistaken bailouts.  If it wasn't for him, we would be in even more of hole.  We need to sew the pocket before more money is dumped in.

     First of all, why doesn't throwing money around do anything?  It's a lengthy process that money goes through, but I'll try to make it as simple as possible.

     For simplicity, let's say the government put $100 into the economy.  To get the money, the government issues debt, so immediately we increase the U.S.'s deficit.  Next, John Smith, who was laid off from the crisis, gets his share and spends it on bills.  Now, the electric, gas, and water companies are paid this month, keeping them at the same level of workers and revenue as before.  Their employees are paid, keeping them in work, who then spend their payroll on their bills, etc.  And the cycle continues on and on until it gets back to the government in the form of taxes.  So, what just happened?  The government sent $100 into the economy, that money went round and round, and came back at the same level.  But the government now only has the $100, but nothing extra to pay the interest on the debt they issued to get the $100.  In conclusion, with the costs of time and labor spent to devise this so-called "master plan," the economy has lost money.  

What should actually be done?

     INVEST! in the people, by investing in technology.  And by "technology" I mean new inventions, both tangible and intangible.  That is the only way NEW jobs can be created.  All of this time that derivatives, futures, collateralized debt, etc., thousands of jobs were created based on all of these Funny earnings.  Now that that bubble has popped, our leaders think jobs are just going to come back, and giving money to the people for them to spend will create jobs.  Well, it does for a limited time, and NO revenue earned from the investment.  If Obama and his crew ran an investment house, it would be called Lehman Brothers.  

     Anyway, we need to invest in things like green technology, a newer technology with long-term growth (not to mention its outstanding monetary and environmental benefits), implementation and creation of new information technology, a newer technology with long-term growth (like for HEALTHCARE REFORM), and allotting money for Public Works (long-term investments that can bring return to the government).  These are just a few ideas, but they are solid: New Technology is our ticket out of the hole we are in, permanently.  

     And so, here we are, watching the government burn the Dollar down to the ground.  The solutions are at our fingertips and we obviously have the budget for it.  Maybe someone needs to tell Capitol Hill that Freakanomics is not an "Economics for Dummies" book!?!?  

What will be their next move; what will be your's during election season?

First of all,

For all that want to know, I have a B.S. in Finance and a B.S. in Management.  Throughout business school, I did numerous in-depth studies of the general business industry, including full corporate analysis, marketing analysis and reports, Corporate Social Responsibility studies, Corporate Environmental Responsibility, cases in ethics, healthcare industry studies pertaining to healthcare management and information technology, insurance studies, etc.  
   
The POINT is that I am sure any other business major has done some or all of these types of studies, so I am not trying to be the LAW in what I talk about; I'm merely another person who has a very educated opinion, and learned millions of facts from millions of sources, but isn't going to cite every other sentence.  SO, feel free to offer your opinions on anything.  If sources are really wanted, I will gladly look it up.
   
Thanks for following; thanks for listening; enjoy!