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Wednesday, 9 August 2017

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As we noted regarding the tragic case of little Charlie Gard, government-run health "care" really isn't about the care at all: it's actually all about control:

"Charlie's parents weren't asking for special care, or special funding, or that the Much Vaunted National Health System© (because ultimately, they own this) do anything more than get out of the way"

Now, another young Briton's health is in danger, this time a teenaged dancer, participating in Britain's Got Talent, with a severe spinal condition:

"15-year-old Julia Carlile, who appeared on Cowell’s show "Britain’s Got Talent" along with her interpretive dance group ... she was going to need corrective surgery shortly after the performances on the show."

Problem is, the only treatment allowed by the Much Vaunted National Health System© would require steel rods that would effectively end her just-now-burgeoning dance career.

Enter Simon Cowell (really!), who has graciously donated almost a quarter of a million dollars to pay for her surgery - in the US.

That's right:

"Carlile opted for a medical procedure only offered in the United States called vertebral body tethering"

This procedure eschews rods for screws, promising her greater range of motion and a real shot at resuming her dancing. It's not even *offered* by the Much Vaunted National Health System© (or that other beacon of healthcare brilliance, Cuba).

Good thing she wasn't in hospital (as they say Across the Pond), else the rocket surgeons running the MVNHS© may well have locked her down, too.

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Tuesday, 8 August 2017

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This isn't really a big deal, but I wonder sometimes about Home Office Critters and whether they actually read what they write.

Case in point:

I'm currently working on a Retirement Income Disability plan quoe for a physician (like this). So as I'm reading through the proposal (to be fair, not from the carrier in that link), I notice among the included benefits:

[click to embiggen]

Um, no you won't.

/sigh.

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Insurance Tips and trik auto insurance, auto insurance quotes, auto insurance companies, auto insurance florida, auto insurance quotes online, auto insurance america

It's been a while since we looked at medical tourism. We mentioned it yesterday when we noted that upwards of 60,000 Candians sought care outside that country's failing government-run health scheme.

And, perhaps more to the point, we reported in January that the "cost of international private medical insurance is climbing globally, with an inflation rate of 9.2 percent reported for 2016."

And, of course, the ACA has been steadily chipping away at physicians' incomes here at home.

Okay, Henry, very interesting, if disparate, items. What's your point?
Well, FoIB Dr Valerie Jones alerted us to this rapidly growing opportunity that uses virtual medical tourism to help boost actual physician income:

"This Startup Connects U.S. Doctors with Patients in China ... that deal in the domain of telemedicine, sometimes called telehealth, which uses technology to remotely connect doctors and patients otherwise separated by physical distance."

After all, what difference does it make if the patient is 10 miles away, or 6000? Other than the slight inconvenience of time-zone shifting, why not? And it's certainly a potential money-making powerhouse:

"Estimates on telemedicine’s market size vary ... projects it will more than double from $25.53 billion in 2015 to $57.92 billion in 2020."

That's a lot of revenue for a few minutes on the phone (or Skype, etc).

Telehealth itself isn't all that new, but this application of it seems to be burgeoning. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

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Monday, 7 August 2017

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CanuckCare© continues to auger in:

"“Free” Canadian healthcare is not free, according to a report released Tuesday ... a “typical Canadian family of four will pay $12,057 for health care in 2017—an increase of nearly 70 percent over the last 20 years.”

So how's that Single Payer system working out?

Still, that $12 large may be a bargain since it buys great care, right?

Turns out, not so much:

"[T]here is still a long waiting list for a host of operations, both routine and urgent."

And over 60,000 Canadians sought actual care outside the country last year.

But "free" (or, you know, not).

[Hat Tip: FoIB Holly R]

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Thursday, 3 August 2017

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Last Fall, we blogged on Kanye West's health issues, specifically as they applied to the cancellation of much of his concert tour schedule. In that post, we noted that Mr West had apparently purchased an insurance policy to cover that eventuality:

"[H]e's since cancelled the balance of his tour, at a cost of at least $30 million. That's a lot of scratch even for a successful musician, which is why he (reportedly) has an insurance policy that likely covers this kind of situation."

As it turns out, he did, in fact, make that purchase. And the story might have ended there, but for one small problem:

"Kanye West has filed a lawsuit claiming insurers failed to pay nearly $10 million for the singer's canceled Saint Pablo Tour last year."

As an aside, I'm curious about the rather substantial discrepancy between the $30 million loss cited in the original post, and the $10 million in dispute.

Nevertheless, this is an interesting case: it seems to turn on the definition of "accidental bodily injury or illness," which being hospitalized seems to pretty much qualify.

One wonders whether this will be settled out of court, or taken to trial. We'll keep you posted.

[Hat Tip: FoIB Jeff M]

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Wednesday, 2 August 2017

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It has been four years since insurers submitted their initial rates to buy market share in Obamacare's individual market. Back then insurers were using assumptions that the segment would grow through government forcing people to purchase their product, existing policyholders coming over from "crappy" insurance plans, the promise of enforcing the rules, huge transfers of funds from competitors, and large sums from taxpayer funded subsidies.

Nevermind the ginormous turd of a website, the bigger problems occurred when those in power issued major changes - literally weeks into the first open enrollment. Some problems have continued because of a lack of enforcement. Others have come from bipartisan Congressional changes that were signed by President Obama.

The first was a reprieve for those already insured who found out that "if they liked their plan" they couldn't keep it. These transitional plans (Grandmothered) kept a large number of healthy folks out of the Obamacare markets when HHS issued a rule allowing people to retain their medically underwritten insurance.

The second problem was the expansion of - but no policing of - "hardship waivers". There are a plethora of waivers people can take advantage of. Some are legit. Others, not-so-much. The most egregious (IMO) is the exemption for Christian Health Care Sharing Ministries (HCSM). HCSM's aren't insurance products. They don't have mandated benefits nor do these Ministries pay in to the Obamacare taxes and fees. Don't get me wrong, if it's the right fit for a person they should look at it as an alternative. My objection is the double standard that Obamacare considers this "good" but a mini-med/limited benefit plan is considered crap.

Lack of enforcement continues to be a significant contributor. The primary culprit on the enforcement front stems from Special Enrollment Periods (SEP). While these have been tightened under the Trump Administration, the first three years under Obama was a free-for-all. In discussions with insurance company underwriters and executives, all had a similar response to how HHS policed SEP's. The short answer was, they didn't. As one insurer put it:

"They (Obama's HHS) rubber stamped everything. Politically they had to. Think of it this way. If someone was without insurance in January then was diagnosed with cancer in March they would have to wait until January of the following year to obtain coverage. These type of situations happen more often than you know. Imagine the backlash if people were diagnosed with major health conditions then were denied insurance due to Obamacare's own rules? The simple way to make it work was to allow people in, then place blame on insurers when rates went up."

A final problem is revenues. "Not one dime to the deficit" was BS. When you have an initial CBO score that uses 10 years of revenues but only 6 years of expenses and it barely is at breakeven we know it won't be true. Making matters worse, the expenses continue to exceeded expectations. The bending of the cost curve is going in the wrong direction. Instead of shoring up the costly overruns Congress does the opposite - cuts revenues. Look at this list of changes to Obamacare that are causing the fiscal crisis to rise:

Every one of these revenue cuts had bipartisan support.

There are lots of nails in the coffin of the individual health insurance market. Many come from the sledgehammers that Obama's administration pounded. Some have come from a Republican controlled Congress.

Both sides continue to point fingers. Which brings me to something I was told as a young child. When you point a finger at someone remember that three fingers are pointing at you.

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Tuesday, 1 August 2017

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One of the issues that's just now coming into view is just how sneaky ObamaCare-enablers have been in exempting themselves from its disastrous effects.

And which enablers are those, you may be wondering?

That would be Congress, which has been (illegally) benefiting from the law's small group exemption. Last I looked, there were 535 members CongressCritter (plus various support staff). And yet, we have this (courtesy of Phil Kerpen):

[click to embiggen]

#EndTheCharadeNow

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