[Winona Online Democracy] Health care cost is a local concern without a local solution. We have a Chamber with a health care committee. We have people who can put pressure on elected officials at the State and Federal levels. I copied two articles from this morning's St. Paul paper that I found very interesting to compare. One speaks to the problems of those who can not afford care and the other to the profits by those who own the insurance companies. The first one says "costs produce pain" while the other says "HMOs well funded". This was once rightly considered a problem for the middle class. It now is a problem for all but the rich. I refer you to an article in a national magazine - http://www.governing.com/archive/2004/jun/welfare.txt We now have very poor people in Winona who once had access to pretty good health care coverage via government programs who now must go without dental care, necessary drugs, etc. We have had local churches taking up collections to help poor people with the new co-pay requirements in order to get dental care for abscessed teeth causing great pain and serious health risks. So now we not only have low income working folks who can afford insurance but we have welfare recipients being denied health care. AND the sad thing is that what the Governing article points out is so true -- the general voting public wants it that way.
Craig Brooks ************************ Posted on Fri, Jun. 04, 2004 PIONEER PRESS-MPR POLL: Health care costs producing pain BY TOM MAJESKI Pioneer Press Like a low-grade infection, skyrocketing health care costs are having an unhealthy impact on Minnesotans, a new statewide poll shows. Nearly half — 43 percent — of the 625 registered Minnesota voters interviewed last week said rising health care costs have prompted changes in their spending habits. The poll was commissioned by the Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio and conducted from May 24 to 26. "In my book, that is really a significantly high number," said former U.S. Sen. David Durenberger, a health care expert who headed Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Citizens Forum on Health Care Costs and leads the National Institute of Health Policy at the University of St. Thomas. Durenberger said the relationship between health care costs and other spending decisions became an issue only recently and has seldom been explored. "Political leaders need to pay attention to that,'' Durenberger said. "A large number of people are going without to stay in a system that many are not using." In the past several years, soaring health care costs have become major stumbling blocks in labor negotiations, including this year's Metro Transit strike, which left the Twin Cities without bus service for 46 days. A growing number of Minnesotans have watched health care premiums consume their wage increases, while others have seen their company-sponsored health care benefits either reduced or eliminated as employers struggle with rising costs. Poll participant Ken Gamer, a 55-year-old retired resident of St. Paul, said health insurance has become too expensive. "It's way too high, considering what people's incomes are," Gamer said. "Even employers are getting to the point where they can't maintain benefits because it's way too high. The prescriptions, the doctors, the hospital costs — it's all too expensive." Indeed, the poll found that one-third of Minnesotans have had their health care benefits reduced during the past two years, while only 9 percent said their benefits were increased. In response to the trend, Pawlenty last year appointed the Durenberger forum to find ways to slow the cost spiral. Lawmakers debated a number of health care proposals during the 2004 session, but in the 11th-hour logjam managed to pass only three watered-down cost-cutting provisions. Durenberger and other health care experts believe that more significant health care cost-cutting measures, including those suggested in the Citizens Forum's report, will be addressed during the 2005 legislative session. The poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc., of Washington, D.C., also found that only 78 percent of Minnesotans now believe they have adequate health insurance. "Ten or 20 years ago, it would have been closer to 90 or 100 percent," Durenberger said. "In the last year or two, they had something that their insurance didn't cover and now they are concerned that (their coverage) may not be enough." The poll also found that more than half of Minnesotans are either very or somewhat concerned about the rising cost of prescription drugs. Durenberger said the finding didn't surprise him. "There are a large number of prescription-drug-dependent people in this country and they've heard nothing but bad news for years," he said. David Atchison, a 43-yearold self-employed resident of St. Paul, agrees that prescription drug prices are a problem, but "ironically, I'm against Tim Pawlenty for trying to fight the pharmaceutical companies. I don't think government has a place to set prices. I don't want government health care." But Larry Paulsen, 56, a retiree from Eden Prairie, believes "Pawlenty is on the right track by trying to force access to cheaper drugs." Pollsters also found that more than 50 percent of Minnesotans are either very or somewhat concerned over how they would pay for a huge medical bill if something serious happens to them. Durenberger said the response reflects a growing realization that a major portion of health care costs are incurred either during the last six months of life or when battling a catastrophic illness. "More people ought to focus more on catastrophic coverage than on health savings accounts," Durenberger said. At the same time, he added, health care officials and political leaders ought to focus not only on how Minnesotans are covered but also on ways to control costs. Vera Hunt, a 73-year-old retiree in Deerwood, said she has health insurance coverage through her former employer but is concerned that the company will drop coverage once Medicare begins offering prescription drug benefits in 2006. "I'm paying a lot right now," Hunt said. "I'm not sure how much more I can afford." Elizabeth Traff, a 44-year-old Rochester homemaker, said health insurance is an important but not a crucial issue. "Our costs did jump a lot this year, so it has made a difference to our budget," Traff said. "I see it as a problem, but, for me personally, we're doing all right." Terry Haefner of Mankato, who at age 61 is approaching retirement, said that "HMOs have screwed up the whole equation. They've made it worse, not better." To solve the problem, Haefner says, doctors, insurance providers and politicians "all have to sit down and work on the betterment of everybody, not just themselves and not just dollars." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Michael Krieger contributed to this report. Tom Majeski, who covers medical news, can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 651-228-5583. **************************************************************************** **************************** Posted on Fri, Jun. 04, 2004 Area HMOs well funded BY JIM McCARTNEY Pioneer Press Minnesota health care consumers and employers who think their premiums are too high might have a case, based on some findings in a report issued Thursday. Minnesota's health maintenance organizations have doubled their net worth over the past five years to $792 million — up 26 percent last year alone, said Allan Baumgarten, a Minneapolis-based health care analyst who issued the report on the state's managed care market. That means, on average, the state's HMOs have about 2.3 months of reserve funds. HMOs are required by state law to have no less than one month and no more than three months of expenses in reserve. Metropolitan and Preferred One had reserves over the three-month limit, according to Baumgarten's report. "Other states I follow show average reserves of a little more than one month, so Minnesota's reserves are well above average," Baumgarten said. Given the large reserves, it's an "open question" if the state's HMOs might slow premium increases to reflect their large pool of reserves, he said. "I think we're already seeing some moderation in premium increases," said Karl Oestereich, a spokesman for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. Medica, for instance, had 2.59 months in reserve, but that reflected its $80 million "premium holiday" at the end of last year, which kept it under the state's reserve ceiling. Blue Plus, the Minnesota Blues' HMO organization, had 1.85 months in reserve, while HealthPartners had 1.83 months in reserve. Baumgarten pointed out that the larger Blue Cross Blue Shield organization, which also must meet reserve requirements, had net income of $96.4 million last year, ending the year with about four months of reserves. The main reason Blue Cross Blue Shield is over the limit is the tobacco settlement money that it has earmarked to spend but has not yet done so due to litigation, said Oestereich. Legislators are looking at other ways to measure a nonprofit health insurer's financial stability, he said. The report also showed that last year's increase in enrollment at Minnesota's health maintenance organizations turned out to be a one-year blip. More employers are going self-insured, a decade-long trend that had been interrupted in 2002, Baumgarten said. Enrollment in HMOs dropped by about 68,000 members, declining 8.4 percent to 744,041. At the same time, however, the state's HMOs saw a 10 percent increase to 1.187 million in the number of enrollees they manage but for whom they do not bear the insurance risk, according to the report. Of the big Twin Cities-area HMOs, HealthPartners was the big loser in enrollment, down 11.6 percent to 393,058 members. Medica lost 2.4 percent in enrollment to 482,248; UCare was up 1.2 percent to 105,838; and Blue Plus was down 6.7 percent to 186,071. The numbers do not reflect those enrolled in company-funded plans administered by those HMOs. Premiums for the commercial customers of Minnesota's HMOs went up about 8 percent last year. Without Medica's "premium holiday," premiums would have gone up more. Medica's premiums went up just 2.6 percent to an average of $223 per month per member last year, but it would have been 4 percentage points higher without the premium holiday. Since the premium money was paid back to employers and not to employees, workers who pay part of the premium to Medica did not benefit from the "holiday." Two other large Twin Cities HMOs had premiums that went up by double digits — Blue Plus was up 11.7 percent to an average of $226 per month per member, while HealthPartners was up 12.6 percent to an average of $229 per month per member. The average premium revenue for commercial customers was $225.51 per member last year, up from $208.97 per member the previous year, according to Baumgarten. Minnesota HMOs reported $128 million in profits last year, about double the net income they had in 2002. At the big HMOs, Medica had net income of $41 million on revenues of $1.48 billion, HealthPartners had net income of $28.7 million on revenues of $1.62 billion, UCare had net income of $2.8 million on revenues of $540 million, and Blue Plus had net income of $13.7 million on revenues of $628 million, according to Baumgarten's report. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Jim McCartney can be reached at 651-228-5436 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. 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