Dear brothers and sisters, February 27, 2010;
Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmathullahi Wa Bharakhathuhu.
http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/beyond-the-summit.php#1413945
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During the Summit , 4,083 more people lost their health insurance. Another 708 filed bankruptcy because of their medical bills. And, thirty five died because they could not afford care.
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From
http://www.icasualties.org/OEF/ we find the total US casualties from 2001 to 2010 [with about 90 days in 2001, about 50 days in 2010 and full years at 365 days for the rest over a total of 3,060 days] is 1,007 at a rate of 0.329 per day. The casualties in Iraq [over 295 days in 2003, 50 days in 2010 and 365 days over 6 years giving a total of 2,535 days] is 4,380 from
http://www.icasualties.org/Iraq/Index.aspx giving a rate of 1.728 deaths per day. Adding the two rates, the deaths due to wars are at 2.057 deaths per day.
In contrast the deaths of Americans who cannot afford healthcare is 35 in one day. How much should we spend to avoid these deaths which are about 18 times the deaths due to the wars initiated by the Bush administration?
http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/LED-247176/Eight-Health-Leaders-Respond-to-Obamas-Healthcare-Summit
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Glenn Steele, MD, PhD
President & CEO
Geisinger Health System
"If our leaders would set an example of collaboration around health reform, then we can hope that medical professionals will soon collaborate around re-engineering healthcare delivery. Then and only then, a healthier America will be within reach."
Lori Heim, MD
President
American Academy of Family Physicians
"The summit clearly demonstrated the intricate balance that we must strike if we are to regain control of an industry that consumes 17% of our gross national product and affects 100% of Americans.
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From the above we find that the Health industry [possibly through the health insurance premiums and copay for treatments alone] consumes 17% of the gross national product. This includes the emergency room treatment of the uninsured as well. We say this because the hospitals would collect the expenditure on the uninsured through the services given to the insured. So when all Americans take health insurance, the cost should be less than 17% of GNP as the sick would get treated before their sickness worsens to be worthy of emergency care.
We agree with Glenn Steele and hope that the Congress, the Senate and the President jointly enact a bipartisan healthcare reform. We hope to suggest such a reform in what follows.
We agree that bipartisan law could be made only on matters on which there is agreement. Let us look at the aspects of agreement now.
http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/beyond-the-summit.php?rss=1
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House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said: "We entered this room with the understanding that we agree on 70 percent of what is in the health reform bill. …”
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http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/beyond-the-summit.php#1413972
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Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Committee Chairman Finance Committee, U.S. Senate
Republicans and Democrats agree we should focus on prevention. We agree we should give individuals and small businesses a new marketplace where they can pool together to get lower rates. We agree we should aggressively fight fraud, waste and abuse. These are just some of the many areas where we agree.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100226/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul
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At the summit, there were some areas of agreement, including barring insurers from dropping policyholders who become sick, ending annual and lifetime monetary limits on health insurance benefits and letting young adults stay on their parents' health policies into their mid-20s or so.
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Listing the agreements, we have:
1. Prevention should be supported.
2. Insurance exchanges at the state level for individuals and small businesses are required.
3. Fraud, waste and abuse should be fought. In other words, the health industry should be monitored and those causing waste, abuse, and fraud should be punished if that is the only way waste, abuse and fraud could be avoided.
4. Policy holders who fall sick cannot be denied continued coverage [at the old premiums before they fell sick].
5. There is no limit on the health insurance benefits that could be availed either annually or over a lifetime.
6. Young adults [age 18 to 26 say] continue on the health insurance plans of their parents.
Since all the above six are in agreement between the Democrats and the Republicans these automatically form a part of the bipartisan legislation.
If a law just including the above alone is passed, there are two possible outcomes. As the Republicans claim, the Health industry would self regulate and the quality of health would improve and the premiums would decrease gradually. It is also possible that having got every American to buy insurance, the Health industry, in particular the insurers would simply jack up the premiums and earn hefty profits as Enron did.
Depending on which of the two happens, one or the other group would lose interest in the reform and thus the people might suffer. Accepting the Democratic apprehensions as future occurrence is tantamount to accusing the Health insurers of being selfish and being frauds. That is not the American way. But for those poor souls declared as enemy combatants by Bush, every one is innocent until proven guilty.
America might not get another chance to reform healthcare and thus we cannot on philosophical grounds simply wait on the good nature of the health insurers. Even though every one is assumed innocent until proven guilty, we have laws mentioning the different crimes and the corresponding punishments.
We propose the bipartisan bill consider the possibility of intervention by the public, and thus include provisions that would kick-in if the health insurers do not achieve premium reduction and quality improvement.
We consider different disagreements and propose possible solutions now.
http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/beyond-the-summit.php#1413970
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Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio
Minority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives
State lawmakers in at least 36 states have introduced legislation in their state legislatures to declaring their states’ freedom from ObamaCare’s unconstitutional individual mandate.
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The above is a serious charge. If there is no requirement that every American must carry health insurance the concept of insurance -- sharing of risk between the healthy and the sick -- itself would be destroyed. Instead of forcing any person to buy insurance, we should make insurance affordable for every one. We suggest that the government pays the excess of any health related expense [be it insurance premium, copay or cost of medication and treatment] in excess of 10% of the total income before any deductions are availed. Every year by September 30, the total paid by the government would be recouped from the excess profits gained by the health insurers. In case the excess profits do not cover the amount paid by the government, the required sum would be collected as a "Health Tax" on the rich [individuals earning $200,000 or more and families earning $250,000 or more]. The percentage of the earnings to be collected as "Health Tax" would be fixed every year based on the expected total income of the rich and the sums to be collected to replenish the Treasury.
As the Republicans claim if the Health insurers avoid waste, fraud and abuse then they would reimburse the government for the subsidies paid to individuals irrespective of their income. If as the Democrats apprehend the health insurers simply gain customers, then the "Health Tax" automatically kicks-in.
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James Rohack, MD
President
American Medical Association
"The current legal environment runs counter to efforts to improve value and appropriate utilization of healthcare services. A mix of proven medical liability reforms and new initiatives will correct this perverse legal environment, benefit patients on several levels, and ensure that injured patients are fairly and promptly compensated. …”
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It is claimed, and partly true that defensive medicine is costly. The hospitals practice defensive medicine insisting on the tests to be done by laboratories they trust possibly because of the malpractice charges. We suggest the legal environment be modified by insisting on non-duplication of tests and making the laboratory pay in case the patient suffered due to the medicine based on wrong test results. Of course the hospital should pay if the tests were correct but the interpretation and diagnosis done by the hospital were wrong. To implement such a bifurcation, the laboratories must be removed from the management of the hospital and entrusted to a separate management. The laboratories should continue in their current premises of the hospitals but they should become independent of the hospitals administratively and financially.
In Internet business even though the purchaser might live anywhere in the US, the law of the state in which the company is registered alone is applicable. This cannot be extended to healthcare.
http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/page-2/LED-247176/Eight-Health-Leaders-Respond-to-Obamas-Healthcare-Summit
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Jane Cline
President
National Association of Insurance Commissioners
West Virginia Insurance Commissioner
Sandy Praeger
Chair
NAIC Health and Managed Care Committee
Kansas Insurance Commissioner
"Finally, the members of the NAIC are strongly opposed to any bill in which the federal government allows insurance carriers to sell their products in our states using the regulatory rules of another state. …”
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http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/page-3/LED-247176/Eight-Health-Leaders-Respond-to-Obamas-Healthcare-Summit
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Anthony Wright
Executive Director
Health Access California
" California provides many consumer protections because of a long history of abuses by HMOs and health insurers. Other states provide few or none."
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To ensure the public gets all the consumer protections provided by a state, it should be mandatory for every health insurer doing business in a state open an office in that state and be bound by the law of the state. Whether the health insurer participates in the Health Exchange of a state or not, the above requirement applies.
In summary we have:
1. Prevention is supported. That is preventive medicine must be covered by health insurance.
2. Insurance exchanges at the state level for individuals and small businesses are required.
3. Fraud, waste and abuse should be fought. In other words, the health industry should be monitored and those causing waste, abuse, and fraud should be punished if that is the only way waste, abuse and fraud could be avoided.
4. Policy holders who fall sick cannot be denied continued coverage [at the old premiums before they fell sick].
5. There is no limit on the health insurance benefits that could be availed either annually or over a lifetime.
6. Young adults [age 18 to 26 say] continue on the health insurance plans of their parents.
7. Every American is expected to carry health insurance. Those who refuse to carry insurance shall be denied treatment -- emergency care included. If they reach an emergency care department they have to avail insurance. For such persons the insurer is free to charge appropriate premium and is not bound by the limits, if any, imposed by the law. Further if such individuals incur health expenses more than 10% of their total income before applying any deductions, the government would not provide any subsidy whatsoever. They have to meet their health cost themselves. [We believe this is constitutional wherein the government refuses to give a benefit that was rejected by the individual.]
8. Irrespective of the income of the individual or family, any expenditure more than 10% of the income before availing any deductions would be paid by the government.
9. The total spent by the Treasury because of rule 8 would be recouped from the excess profit above normal profit [the % to be decided by the lawmakers or taken from the industry records] from the health insurers.
10. If the amount recovered through rule 9 falls short, the shortage would be recouped as "Health Tax" from the individuals earning $200,000 per year or families earning $250,000 per year. The income is computed before applying any deductions.
11. The % of the "Health Tax" would be calculated every September 30, and is due latest by the following April 15.
12. Any laboratory that exists as part of a hospital should be segregated from the hospital. The laboratory would continue in the current space but be independent of the hospital administratively and financially.
13. The compensation for any patient injured due to wrong treatment would be paid by the laboratory if the diagnosis and treatment was according to the test results. However if the error was that of the hospital and not of the laboratory the compensation would be paid by the hospital. In deserving cases the judge might apportion a part of the compensation to be paid by the laboratory and the remaining amount by the hospital.
14. Every insurer selling policy in a state must open an office in that state. The policies sold to the citizens of that state shall be governed by the laws of that state.
Ya Allah! Sanction a single bipartisan Health Reform Law as above or better soon. Aameen, Aameen, Ya Rabbil Aalameen.
Kindly forward to every American you know so that they could encourage their Representatives and Senators to quickly pass the Health Reform Law.
With prayers to Allah Subhana Wa Taala,
Your brother,
Mohideen Ibramsha
Was Salaam