We have all spent a great deal of time berating ourselves for leaving a large Federal debt for our children and grandchildren to pay off with their taxes. It would be nice if there was a way available to decrease this burden on them. It turns out that there is a way. This way is the passage of a Healthcare program to cover everyone in the country to replace the method we now have which leaves millions of citizens with no Healthcare coverage.

FIRST LOOK AT TOTAL PREMIUM COSTS TO INSURE EVERYONE
I first got started looking at the costs associated with the Healthcare programs in 1994 when Pres. Clinton gave a talk on it. He took out his Healthcare card-the one from the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan - and said that he wanted everyone in the country to have a program like he had. He also mentioned the costs of the program. He said that he paid $100/ month and the govt. paid $300 /month for this coverage. That comes to $4800/year to cover him and his family.

Having been an engineer for many years, I have acquired the ability to multiply big numbers in my head. I roughed it out by assuming that there were 250 million people in the United States and with the assumption that all the families consisted of 3 people like his, I came up with a total premium of $400 Billion/year to cover everyone with that program. This is what's known as a rough cut, but it's surprising how close that number really is. That isn't much to cover everyone in a Healthcare field that was then costing a total of $1 Trillion/year.With that calculation, I then started to fine tune the numbers while keeping in mind the fact that the Federal Employee Program covered all Federal employees, not just the president and perhaps Congress.

The Clintons attempted to supply a Healthcare Program for everyone, but they made several mistakes which destroyed this attempt. The Healthcare team made these mistakes in their attempt to provide coverage for everyone in the country:

1. They gave up too soon.
   
2. They tried to have the program run as a new Bureaucracy. They should have formulated it on the Federal level and then put it out for bid in the private sector as is done with the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan and Medigap.
   
3. They did not disclose the names of the Congressmen who took large amounts of money from the anti-Healthcare lobbyists.
   
4. They should have told the American public that Healthcare costs could have been cut almost in half with the implementation of this well thought out Healthcare Program. The total cost calculations are presented here-using the premiums from linton's Healthcare team (which reflected the effect of the elimination of cost shifting throughout the system).

After adding in the amount for co-payment, V.A. and Military Medical, double premium for those over 65 and a few other additions the total cost would be $555 Billion per year. THis would literally cut Healthcare costs in half compared to the $1 Trillion+ that is now being spent.

With the savings in Medicare which would amount to about 20% and the cut in Medicaid costs of about 50% it would be possible to add the prescription drug and dental benefits to Medicare and still cut the costs by many Billions per year. In addition,the Federal Deficit could be reduced almost to zero while cutting the costs to the states by at least $1 Billion/year for each state.

The cut in Medicare costs would come from the deletion of cost shifting which amounts to about 20% of medical bills.The cut in Medicaid would come from the removal of a lot of this care from emergency rooms. Several Senators disclosed the costs of Healthcare for single parent Welfare families in their states were between $13,500 and $15,000/year. This would be reduced as shown in the premiums above.

WHAT IS COST SHIFTING AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT US?
I was talking to a friend of mine about Healthcare costs and he questioned me about the meaning of cost shifting .When I explained it to him,he said that he had just experienced that with his wife. She had arthroscopic surgery on her knee at a doctor's office using Medicare. At the end of the surgery,she was given a pain pill and was given a second one for use later. When the bill came in,there was a charge of $208 for these 2 pills and he was wondering about the high cost.I told him that was an example of the medical profession adding on to the bills of those who can pay to supposedly make up for the ones who don't pay. This would be eliminated when everyone has a policy to cover their treatment.

The real shame of this situation is that most people think in terms of the 'Clinton Healthcare Plan' as a bad thing where in reality if the public knew about its' real coverage and savings, they would all want it passed.

Every thing I have ever seen associated with Healthcare still verifies the costs being in the $500 Billion range instead of the $1 trillion range.

CAN THE PEOPLE IN WASHINGTON COUNT WHEN IT HELPS US?
One of the very prominent Democratic Senators-during his reelection debates- had the following conversation with his opponent.

(Opp.) "Senator, during the recent Healthcare debates, you said that you were in favor of the Single Payer program."

(Sen.) "That's correct"

(Opp.) "Senator,did you not know that the single Payer program would cost $479 Billions in new taxes?"

(Sen.) "Yes,I did and I made a mistake with that- and when I make a mistake, I correct it."

Now, where is the mistake when you support a program that will supply Healthcare to everyone in the country at about 1/2 the 1994 cost for Healthcare? This is especially questionable when the total govt. expenditures-counting Federal, State and local- in 1994 came to $480 Billion.

HE TOOK HOW MUCH?
One of the Senatorial debates preceding the 1994 elections showed how the Healthcare Program was defeated with that large block of money thrown at Washington by the anti- Healthcare lobby.This was a debate by a well known Republican(well known outside of Washington) and a Democratic member of the House who was running for the Senate seat in his state. I might note that the Republican had been beaten up pretty good in the three previous debates that I had seen. The conversation went as follows:

(Rep.) Excuse me, can I ask you a question?

(Dem.) Why of course you can . I'll be glad to answer any question that you have.

(Rep.) Didn't you have a Healthcare plan of your own that you sponsored during the recent Healthcare debate in Congress?

(Dem.) Yes I did.

(Rep.) Then tell me why you haven't said one word about Healthcare since the lobby gave you $700,000 ?

There was no response to this question and the Dem. looked like a balloon that had been punctured with a pin. He also lost the election and I'm sure a large reason was that question about the money.

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC DOESN'T DESERVE WHAT?
During the same debate period another conversation took place that shows the attitude of a lot of people in Congress. This was a debate involving 4 candidates for a Senate seat in a Northeast state.There was a Democrat, a Republican and two other people from the smaller parties.I'll call them Opp1 and Opp2. The Incumbent Democratic Senator held up the publication covering the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program and said that he wanted everyone in the country covered with a program like that which, of course, he had.

The following responses followed:

(Opp1): That would just generate another bureaucracy in Washington.

(Opp2): That would be too expensive.

(Rep): The American public does not deserve to get the same Healthcare program that I'll get when I'm elected to the Senate, no more than they deserve to get the offices and the staff that I'll get when I'm elected.

The Dem. had no response to that statement but if I had been him, I would have re-run a tape of that debate until the people realized what the real attitude of that Rep. candidate was. He's the person who said that the funding problem with Social Security could be resolved by simply raising the retirement to 70. Why not make it 80? That would really solve it. Incidentally the Rep. won that race. That's what happens when we don't pay attention to what people say when they're talking about us. Keep in mind also that the Federal Employee program is supplied to every employee in the Govt. not just Congressmen and above. You'll be shocked when you see how many employees tell you the same thing about why they have this great program but thet we can't all also have it.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO GET THIS HEALTHCARE PROGRAM BACK ON TRACK?
I think that we Seniors can help our children and grandchildren by doing the following:

1. Call the offices of your Representative and Senator.

2. Tell them that you'd like for their Healthcare people to calculate for you the total Healthcare Premiums to insure everyone in the country with either the Federal Employee Healthcare Program or Clinton's program.

3. Tell them that you want a breakdown of their calculated costs and that you'd like a copy of these calculations sent to you. No matter what kind of smoke that they blow at you, insist that they do this. That way every office in Washington will be aware that we know what's going on. You'll probably be told more than once that the govt. employees are a more select group of people than the rest of the people in the country and that the F.E.H.B.P. can not be used for people outside the govt. I was quite shocked thew first time I was told this.

4. Ask them how much extra it would cost to add the Prescription Drug benefit to Medicare.It should be right at $10 Billion/year which would be more than covered when cost shifting is removed.

5. Send me a copy of the responses to these questions and I'll keep a running total of these and repost this so everyone can tell where we are.

   E-mail Martin - martingw@concentric.net or if you'd like to call me about this posting, the number is: 770-436-6052 (no collect calls please). It might be smart to print out this letter so that you'll have easy access to the numbers involved.

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