Health Care Resources - Spiraling Health Care Costs

Americans are deeply unhappy with the country's health care programs and costs. And rightly so. As one author observed, "A recent survey showed that only 17 percent of respondents in the United States were content with their health-care system . . . Why the discontent? The superficial reasons are simple enough to describe: the system is hugely expensive, very bureaucratic, and extremely patchy. The expenses first: U.S. health care costs a third more, per person, than that of the closest rival, superrich Switzerland, and twice what many European countries spend. The United States government alone spends more per person than the combination of public and private expenditure in Britain, despite the fact that the British government provides free health care for all residents."

The United States pays more for health care per capita than any other industrialized nation -- and even then, Medicare is not a comprehensive, pay-for-everything national health program like those of many nations and United States per capita health care costs continue to escalate rapidly.

Here's what you need to know about health care costs as you plan for retirement.

Americans age sixty-five and over spend four times more on health care on average than do Americans under the age of sixty-five. At the outset of this decade, the average per capita health-care outlay for a person under the age of sixty-file was about $2,800. For people over the age of sixty-five, it was $11,089. And for Americans ages eighty-five and older it was $20,001. Clearly, health care outlays are likely to get substantially larger as you age. You need to plan for them.

U.S. health care expenses have grown mightily. U.S. health care expenses have dramatically escalated each year as new medications, new treatments, diagnostic tools, and health care innovations have come onto the market.

For example, the median nationwide cost for a hospital stay -- excluding physicians charges -- was $11,280 in 1997; by 2004 it was almost double at $20,455. The average total cost for treating a heart attack climbed 40 percent in just seven years. All in, health care costs have escalated fast and the increases are gaining momentum.

Health care costs are likely to continue to grow unabated. Unlike in other countries, no laws meaningfully curb the continual climb of health care and drug costs in the United States. For example, many Americans continue to import drugs from Canada because Canadian prices are significantly lower. This is true even though the new Medicare Features introduced in 2006 offset the cost of pharmaceuticals for U.S. retirees. To curb the cost of medicines, Canada prohibits drug companies from advertising on its television channels. In the United States, on the other hand, the very legislation that created the new Medicare drug benefit (Part D) expressly prohibits the federal government from attempting to negotiate lower prices with drug companies.

Count on it: medical costs are sky-high and likely to keep climbing unless there is a radical overhaul of the system.

More and more corporations are cutting back on health care benefits as medical costs soar. Recent statistics show companies cutting health care benefits and requiring employees and retirees to pay more for them. As one survey of corporate benefit trends concluded, "[Benefit] reductions have become not just common, but expected, with the only question now being of how much more of a reduction in benefits and or an increase in cost will be directly placed on individuals . . . In the end . . . individuals, either as taxpayers or consumers, will need to pay the bill.

I believe this trend will gain greater momentum over the next decades. It will be part and parcel of the continuing erosion of employment benefits -- like the demise of traditional pensions -- that is taking place throughout the country. Just like pensions, more and more health-care expense is going to become a do-it-yourself responsibility because heath care insurance costs are simply becoming too great for companies to shoulder competitively.

Taken all together, you can count on: (1) higher and higher health care costs, (2) more health-care-benefit cutbacks by U.S. employers, (3) the need to factor large health-care expenses into your funding plans, and (4) the need to buy supplemental health-care insurance to shield your savings from cost attack.

Of course, these views will not come as a surprise to most folks. Recent polls show that -- immediately after the foremost financial concern of having enough money for retirement -- the next great concern of most Americans is health care. More than half of adult Americans are "very worried" or "moderately worried" about being able to pay for serious illness or catastrophic health-care expense.

Copyright © 2008 by Jim Schlagheck

The above is an excerpt from the book Cash-Rich Retirement
by Jim Schlagheck
Published by St. Martin's Press; March 2008;$24.95US/$31.00CAN; 978-0-312-37740-3
Copyright © 2008 by Jim Schlagheck

Author
Jim Schlagheck is an author, banker, longtime advisor to the ultrawealthy, and the coproducer of the public television series Retirement Revolution. He has written numerous articles on investing, retirement, and finance, and is also an acclaimed speaker who describes better ways for retirement readiness to audiences of wealth-management professionals and lay investors nationwide.

Health Care Resources - Health Care: an Emerging Industry

Health care is one of the most promising industries in the health and hospitability sector today. Health care relates to the prevention as well as to the treatment of illness. It also implies the overall mental and physical well being of individuals. A health care system refers to the organized functions which are involved in promoting the overall health of the country. The United Kingdom is the only industrialized country that does not offer health care universally. The National Health Service
in the United Kingdom deals only with healthcare in the UK.

Overview of The Rising Health Care Sector

The health care industry is an industry that is considered to be one of the most budding among all other recent upcoming industries. Health care deals with delivering quality service towards improving the health of the people residing in a country. In recent years, the health care sector has been witnessing an upward surge. In a developed country, the health care industry contributes to 10% of the country's gross national product. The professionally trained people serving the health care system ensure that all processes run smoothly.

In most of the developed countries of the world, the health care sector has undergone a lot of privatization. This ensures that the systems that are developed under it run without any bottlenecks. There are several health care models that have come up in recent times. With the growing popularity of the health care industry, some major public insurance systems have also come forward to ensure the smooth functioning of the systems. There are numerous pay systems that have been developed to guarantee the accurate administration of the health care sector.

The health care industry has witnessed a rapid growth in recent times mainly due to its contribution in maintaining the overall health and hygiene of a country. Today, the governments of different countries invest a huge amount of money in the health care sector to ensure that the sector has the proper support needed to grow. Statistical studies have shown that the profit derived from the health care sector is huge, both from the social, as well as the economic point of view. It is due to these reasons that the health care sector is considered to be one of the most emerging and promising industries today.

The technological development brought forth by science in this 21st century, has been seen in the domain of the health care sector too. Today, there are many trained professionals who work in this sector. The professional touch has been given to the health care sector which goes a long way in delivering quality care and support to those who seek its help. With the increase of demand among the people of various countries, the health care sector is also undergoing various stages of evolution to cater to the changing needs and demands of the people. As a result, health care today, stands as one of the most significant industries of recent times.

Health Care Resources - As Grass Roots For Health Care, Mr. Brown Goes to Washington

It is no coincidence that two days after President Obama had the crowd on it's feet every time he talked about pushing health care to the finish line, Mr. Brown is going to Washington.

Looks like Mr. Brown will be sworn in today, with Sen. Kirk giving a farewell speech this afternoon. Why? Health care reform.

Ironically, Scott Brown is the vote the Democrats need to change the game on their health care strategy. He makes it plausible and relevant to the Budget Reconciliation process for a 51-vote reconciliation to include health care. If all you need is 51, the legislation will pass handily.

Finished is the need for Democrats to pull togther a coalition of all parties to reach 60 votes and pass a House-Senate compromise. With President Obama's budget sent to Congress Monday, and in it a $150 billion line item for health care reform, signs point to a re-tooled strategy to get health care passed.

In New Hampshire on Tuesday, President Obama held a successful town hall meeting in Nashua, Mr. Brown's back yard. The crowd was a good focus group on the TARP money repayments going to community banks to ease lending for small businesses. But the crowd really moved when health care was the topic.

Obama stated that the bills now pending are the same as those spearheaded by Senate Majority Leaders Daschle, Dole and Howard Baker.

I said it last summer and last year. The time for health care reform is now, on this Budget, in reconcilation. The White House should start promoting that strategy and push the ball past the red zone, and Congress past overtime. Score a goal for the American people on what they really want for their economy: comprehensive health care reform.

Health Care Resources - Gov't moving into central role in health care

Government is poised to become king of the hill in America's vast health care system, with or without President Barack Obama's planned redo, according an economic report released Thursday.

Federal and state programs will pay slightly more than half the tab for health care purchased in the United States by 2012, says the analysis by Medicare number crunchers published in the journal Health Affairs.

That's even if Obama's health care overhaul wastes away in congressional limbo. Long in coming, the shift to a health care sector dominated by government is being speeded up by the deep economic recession and the aging of the Baby Boomers, millions of whom will soon start signing up for Medicare.

"This does mark a pretty stark jump in the data," said Christopher Truffer of Medicare's Office of the Actuary, which prepared the analysis.

For all the hue and cry over a government takeover of health care, it's happening anyway.

The tipping point is likely to come next year, Truffer said. For technical reasons, the report assumes that Congress is going to allow Medicare to cut doctor fees by 20 percent later this year, as required by a 1990s budget law. But lawmakers have routinely waived such cuts, and they're not likely to allow them in an election year. So government probably will end up picking up most of the nation's medical costs in 2011, instead of 2012.

The report serves as a reality check in the debate over Obama's health care plan, which has been marked by disagreements between the political parties over how large a role government should play.

Congressional Democrats want to move forward with the sweeping legislation, but are stalled over disagreements among themselves. Republicans have rejected Obama's approach as a top-down, big government solution.

Richard Foster, Medicare's top economic forecaster, said the recession has only worsened the two stubborn problems facing the U.S. health care system, lack of insurance coverage and high costs. "All that argues that some form of health care reform is a good idea," Foster said.

The Democrats' plan would expand coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured, while taking some modest steps to slow the pace of future cost increases. It would set up a new insurance marketplace for small businesses and people buying coverage on their own, with government subsidies available for many. Denial of coverage because of health problems would be prohibited.

The report estimated that in 2009, the United States spent $2.5 trillion for health care, with government programs - mainly Medicare and Medicaid - paying $1.2 trillion. Employer health insurance and various private sources covered the other $1.3 trillion. Even as the economy shrank because of the downturn, health care spending grew by 5.7 percent from 2008. Spending by government grew nearly three times faster than private spending, closing in to overtake it.

Driving much of the government surge was Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people, which grew by nearly 10 percent as workers lost jobs with health insurance, and Democrats expanded coverage for children of the working poor.

The swine flu outbreak contributed modestly to higher costs in 2009, as more people went to the doctor and took antiviral medications, the report found. Total spending on prescription drugs grew by slightly more than 5 percent, as higher prices for brand name medications overpowered the widespread availability of generics.

Previous estimates had put the crossover point to a health care system financed mainly by taxpayers at about 2016. There seems to be little chance that the balance will tip back decisively in the direction of private financing, with the Baby Boom generation signing up for Medicare and the lack of health insurance at many new jobs.

Other economically advanced countries - including those with government-run health care - also have problems with costs. But the U.S. spends much more per person than any other nation, without getting better results in life expectancy and many other measures of health.

Health Care Resources - Obama, Democrats reassess health care

Abandoning the health care overhaul is not an option, a senior White House official said Wednesday, after President Barack Obama's top domestic initiative took a devastating hit with the Democratic loss of the Senate seat in the state of Massachusetts.

Obama adviser David Axelrod said administration officials will take into account the message voters delivered Tuesday in electing Republican Scott Brown but declined to go farther.

Questioned about the fate of health care legislation, Axelrod said, "It's not an option simply to walk away from a problem that's only going to get worse."

The stinging loss Tuesday cost Obama the 60-vote Senate majority he was counting on to pass the far-reaching legislation. The outcome splintered the rank and file on how to salvage the bill, energized congressional Republicans and left Obama and the Democrats with fallback options that range from bad to worse.

A leading idea involves persuading House Democrats to pass a Senate bill that many of them have serious problems with. Another alternative calls for Senate Democrats to promise to make changes to the bill later on. Some Democrats said their big hopes would have to be scaled back.

The leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, refused to acknowledge that as a possibility as she left the Capitol near midnight Tuesday after meeting with her top lieutenants to discuss the way forward. Pelosi and others contend that because Massachusetts already has near-universal health coverage under a state law, the upset victory by Republican state Sen. Scott Brown to take Edward M. Kennedy's old seat could not be seen as a referendum on the issue.

"Massachusetts has health care. ... The rest of the country would like to have that too," Pelosi, a Democrat, said. "So we don't say a state that already has health care should determine whether the rest of the country should."

"We will get the job done. I'm very confident. I've always been confident," she added.

Before Senate Democrats gathered Wednesday to discuss their next moves, Majority Leader Harry Reid held out hope for the bill, saying, "There are a lot of different options out there."

Others saw miles (kilometers) of bad road in any direction and suggested that regrouping was in order.

"We shouldn't show the arrogance of not getting the message here," said liberal Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, contending independents had turned against the bill and the Democratic base had lost its enthusiasm. "I don't think it would be the worst thing to take a step back" and turn the focus to jobs, in conjunction with scaled-back health care goals.

Republicans said do not even bother: The election of Brown over the once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley in the Democratic stronghold sent a message that the health legislation should be scrapped altogether. Losing the Massachusetts seat will cost the Democrats the 60th vote needed to overcome Republican efforts to block legislation in the 100-member Senate. Sixty votes are needed to close off debate and move legislation to the full Senate floor.

Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said Americans were breathing "a sigh of relief" over the potential derailing of the health care bill.

"People across the country are saying, 'Slow it down," Steele said Wednesday on ABC television's "Good Morning America."

But David Plouffe, who led Obama's presidential campaign, rejected calls to scrap the bill. "We have a good health care plan," he said on ABC. "We need to pass that. We have to lead."

Senate Democrats were scheduled to meet Wednesday, and a sign of their intentions could emerge then. Obama will have to exert a mighty influence to keep jittery moderates from giving up on the effort.

Democrats do not appear to have enough time to resolve differences between the two bills passed by the House and Senate — and get cost and coverage evaluation estimates back from the Congressional Budget Office as required — before Brown is sworn in.

Moderate Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat, said the Senate should not hold any further votes on health care until Brown is seated.

The legislation would expand coverage to more than 30 million Americans now uninsured, while attempting to rein in the growth of health care costs. Democratic lawmakers will have to move in virtual lockstep to enact the bill now, even as Republican opposition intensifies.

That could be too much to ask from rank-and-file Democrats demoralized by losing a seat held in an almost unbroken line by a Kennedy since 1953. Efforts to woo Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe as a convert could increase. But with polls showing voters souring on health care legislation, the president could be abandoned by lawmakers of his own party.