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The Business of Health Care Report
We’ll focus today on one of Americans
biggest concerns: the cost of health insurance and health services. How much are Americans willing to
pay for health care? In short, we don’t know. What we do know is that their threshold
is being tested strongly now. Employers, facing increasing health care consumption
from their work forces, have pushed more of the costs to employees – by increasing
deductibles, copays and coinsurance. The goal is to make consumers more
informed about health choices, lifestyle changes and costs by pushing greater responsibility
to the patient. Emotionally, we might say we are
willing to pay anything should a loved one be faced with a serious accident or life-threatening
illness. The issue is that “paying anything” may come out of your own pocket, not your
health plan’s coffers. And, for most middle- and some upper-income families, the ability
to pay for a catastrophic episode may be unfeasible. As an example, the cost to care for
a premature newborn can reach half a million dollars. Americans often are insulated from
the true cost of health care because they only know the “cost of health care” to be what
they pay, not the total of what is billed or the true cost of care delivery. The financing of health care is a
huge debate in America. The system is fragmented, inequitable, broken. And, those of
us on company-sponsored health plans pay a hidden “tax” when our rising bill reflects
the bad debt of others or underpayments for Medicaid and Medicare services, which is
consistently the case. Health insurance costs have
increased by double digits in the last several years. New technology and drugs cost
more. The number of uninsured and underinsured is growing. All of these elements are
brewing a perfect storm – capable of devastating America’s health care system. For Texas Health Resources
and its family of hospitals - Harris Methodist Hospitals, Presbyterian
Healthcare System and Arlington Memorial Hospital - I'm CEO
Doug Hawthorne
with "The Business of Health Care Report" on NewsRadio 1080 KRLD.
©
2004 Texas Health Resources |
I'm Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with
"The Business of Health Care Report" on 