Americans are being priced out of health care. A typical employment-based health insurance plan in 2003 was $8,800 split somehow between the employer and the employee according to economist Uwe Reinhart. According to Reinhart, these prices in recent years have been rising at a rate of 10% annually. If this inflationary trend continues at only a 10% rate according to Reinhart, small changes in productivity growth, product price levels, and health insurance premiums could easily drive the fraction of total compensation that is absorbed by health insurance to over 50%.

A St. Petersburg Times article ( 4/23/04 ), quotes Florida Governor Jeb Bush as a strong proponent of so-called “Bare Bones” health insurance policies with low premiums, minimal coverage and high deductibles. While state lawmakers lift coverage mandates for cost- effective preventative care such as mammograms and other screening tests on the recommendation of the Governor, citizens covered by these programs are the losers.

Solutions such as those proposed by the governor are merely the first giant leap toward health care rationing. These plans severely limit access to more sophisticated and costly health care services through onerous plan restrictions and deductibles. As more and more people are forced by economic circumstance into these bare bones coverage plans, a broader cross section of society is shut out of modern health care services. Consequent to this phenomenon, modern health care becomes a luxury commodity provided mostly by those of relatively modest circumstance (Nursing staff) to those affluent enough to afford premium health care insurance coverage.

The rising cost to business for employer based health care coverage places smaller employers at a competitive disadvantage with larger organizations relative to cost and competition for employees. High costs for providing health insurance coverage diminish profits as well as employee earnings. Meanwhile as premiums rise and services are restricted, profits grow for the insurer at the expense of the insured. Again the prevailing direction is one favoring the shifting of risk and cost away from the insurer to the insured, those unable afford insurance, and the providers of health care.

Veterans are increasingly bearing the brunt of budget cuts at the federal level. The closing of Veterans Administration health facility displaces cost and risk to from government to the consumer (Veterans). One veteran told me a story of brother who had to travel to Gainesville, Florida because the facility in Georgia had been closed as a result of budget cuts. The teller of this story himself badly scarred both physically and emotionally from his Vietnam and Korean experience became emotional as he told me this. We have a whole new group of disabled veterans from depleted uranium Gulf War (1991) and blast injured amputees. Our debt to our veterans must be repaid with the care necessary to put their lives back together. I will support our veterans unwaveringly.

John Russell, MS/ARNP (Acute Care), MBA, Health Systems Management