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The U.S. health care system is in serious
trouble. We spent $2 trillion in 2003 on health care and there is
no slow down in spending on the horizon. In its current form, the
system will soon be unsustainable. The burden of the cost for your
health care is rapidly shifting from your employer to you. Don't
look to the government to help you either. The question you need
to answer is "Am I prepared to handle that expense?"
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• Medicare
to start paying for prescription drugs in 2006
| • WASHINGTON
Mar 23, 2005 — The trust fund for Social Security
will go broke in 2041 a year earlier than previously estimated
the trustees reported Wednesday. Trustees also said that
Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly
and disabled, faces insolvency in 2020. |
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-
Associated Press |
• The Dallas Morning
New, 10/18/05 - GM has tentatively agreed to cut $15 million
from their health care expenses over the next seven years.
Ford Motor Co. announced it would be seeking similar cuts
and the Chrysler Group is expected to follow suit. This action
would result in higher health insurance premiums for workers.
• The
Dallas Morning New, 10/05 – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could
limit health and benefits costs by hiring fewer unhealthy
workers….
•
Rising health care costs (see charts below)
| •
The unfunded liabilities of Medicare now amount to $35.5
trillion (ten times the national debt) |
| -
General Accounting Office, National Center for Policy
Analysis |
| •
The unfunded liability of Social Security is $7.2 trillion |
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General Accounting Office, National Center for Policy
Analysis |
• Health
care insurance costs continue to soar
• Shortage
of health care professionals |
Very soon
Americans will be "rated" by health care insurance companies
as to their level of health. This has been done by life insurance
companies for many years, but soon your "health value score"
will determine if, and at what cost, you can obtain health care
insurance, a loan, or even a job. If your health is poor, the more
you will pay to have health care insurance, if you can get it at
all. This concept has been used to determine your automobile insurance
rate for a long time. Put yourself in the loan officer's position
and ask "Do I want to loan money to someone who may not be
alive long enough to repay the loan?" Or, "Do I want to
employ someone who will cost the company money because they are
frequently sick and needing medical attention?"
Americans now have more reasons than
ever to take care of their health; if not, they will feel it in
their wallets.
Did
you know?
General Motors reports that in 2005, $1500 of the cost of
a new car goes to pay for employee health
care (more than the cost of the steel used to build the car).
They also report that their health care cost in 2005 will
be approximately $5.6 billion, up from about $4.8 billion
in 2004.
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“Today (2003) a 65 year
old person without
health insurance needs $160,000 to pay for expected medical
expenses for the remainder of their life. A 45 year old
man today (2003) will need between $500,000 and $1,000,000
when he is 65 for that same care.” |
- The Cost
of Being Sick, Nicholas J. Webb* |
*Nicholas J. Webb has served as the
CEO of several medical companies. Mr. Webb has been awarded
twenty-seven medical product patents from the U.S. Patent
office including a patent for his KidMatch product used by
hospitals all over the country to ensure newborns are not
switched at birth and the FlexPlug ophthalmic implant. |
| “Imagine monthly health-care
bills of more than $1000 per month, or paying out $12,000 per
year for health care on a salary of $40,000.That’s where
we are heading – health care bills will soon rival mortgage
bills in terms of dollar volume.” |
| -
The Cost of Being Sick, Nicholas J. Webb |
| “The U.S. health-care system
is perched on a cliff awaiting a tipping point where it will
fall to an unfortunate demise. The only way to avoid the toppling
of the system is to encourage prevention and wellness themes
and de-emphasize treatment-based health-care initiatives.”
|
- The Cost of
Being Sick, Nicholas J. Webb |
“By
2006 the average family health insurance premium will exceed
$14,500; premium costs will have increased by more than
$5,000 in just three years.
Increasing
at a rate that is five times the inflation rate, health
care spending in 2003 continues to rise at the fastest rate
in our history.
In 2002, health insurance premiums rose at a rate eight
times faster than general inflation; experiencing the largest
one-year surge in premiums in more than a decade. In the
absence of comprehensive reform, the average annual premium
for employer-sponsored family health insurance could reach
$14,545.
| Many experts
agree that our health care system is riddled with inefficiencies,
excessive expenses, inflated prices, poor management,
inappropriate care, waste and fraud. These problems
significantly increase the cost of medical care and
the cost of health insurance for employers and consumers." |
-
National Coalition on Health Care |
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Cost in $Trillions
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- General Accounting
Office |
Health care continues to increase and
is expected to rise to $3.1 trillion by the year 2012.
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| "....I don't see in the next
five to ten years any dramatic decrease in the double digit
inflationary costs of health care. What I do see on the horizon
is a massive push among employers to shift more costs to employees." |
- Jeff Rubleski,
MBA, Sales Team Manager of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan |
Optimal
Health
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