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billkarns

Listed below are comments made by billkarns between Tuesday, 24th June 2008 and Sunday, 6th September 2009.

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Coming back to work will be tough for Obama 10:50pm on 06 Sep 2009 Mr. Mardell -- Welcome to the U.S.

As I scrolled through the list of comment contributors ahead of me, I noticed that none have any expressed experience with healthcare management and administration; none are close enough to the 'action' to have a credible opinion about how "it" works at the street level, or at the healthcare delivery point, except as perhaps consumers.

I recently retired from the business world. As a Human Resources department manager, and corporate director it was among my responsibilities to seek out, buy, administer and provide affordable healthcare to the employees of a for-profit, privately held-company.

The pure and simple truth across the board is that 30 to 40 percent of the claims-cost being paid by single employer healthcare plans in for profit companies is to pay for the 'uninsured' -- it's called 'cost-shifting', i.e., the clinic, hospital, lab, provides the service on demand, without proof of citizenship or proof of ability to pay, either because of federal mandate, or their own 'humanitarian' policies. Then knowing that the debt cannot be collected, the healthcare provider raises prices to cover the cost, i.e., shifting it back to the for profit companies who buy healthcare next year.

The last plan I administered was a partially self-funded plan, in which the sponsor company assumed the first $75K of risk on an indivual claim out of their own corporate pocket, and at $75K + $1.00 the stop-loss underwriter picked up the remainder to $1M or Plan maximum. Almost 40 percent of our claims cost was for people who did not, never had, and never will work for the company paying the premiums; in another 'cost shift' mode, the Medicare Trust shifts the cost of a claim first to the employers' healthcare plan if either the patient or a covered dependent has a non-government healthcare plan...no matter which Plan was enrolled in first. Point being: uninsured/underinsured does NOT mean without healthcare.

If you want to know the truth about healthcare in America, follow the money starting with who pays the premiums and co-premiums, the co-pays, and deductibles, then follow the money from the third-party administrator/or insurance company to the healthcare provider (hospital, clinic, lab, rehab, skilled nursing, etc) and on up, to how much taxes are being gleaned by federal and local government off the bottom-line of the 'evil' insurance companies, who are simply buying future-prices, negotiated with the healthcare providers, and betting that they can manage costs well enough to make a profit on the volume-buy; we're expected to believe that if you replace a for-profit with a government agency the cost and price will go down? Rubbish! There is no incentive on a government agency to run leaner, meaner, and more efficient...the price will inevitably increase.

On the other hand, if you want to know the 'myth' of healthcare, just follow the politics, the popular opinion on the street gleaned from people who don't know how their own healthcare plan works...how its funded, who's getting rich, and what the real cost of their claim would be if the government were entirely out of the healthcare business.

As I said, welcome to America...where the money to be made on an imaginary crisis spends as well as the money made on a real crisis.

Bill Karns
Sherwood, Oregon
Reflecting on delay 6:10pm on 12 Apr 2009 Justin -- your delay could have been much, much worse...you could have been stuck in Detroit or East St. Louis.
An unconventional Church 01:14am on 06 Oct 2008 Great...religion staying out of politics...now if we can just convince politicians to stop trying to legislate our 'morality' and start practicing their own personal responsibility and ethics...nah!

BK
The strange death of social conservatism 6:23pm on 13 Jul 2008 #16.

"Meet the new boss,
Same as the old boss..."

The Who
Health, guns and Unity 6:57pm on 02 Jul 2008 Justin -- regarding an appropriately symbolic venue for the Obama and Clinton Unity Tour...I submit "Boring, Oregon"... a redundant title I'll admit, but it best symbolizes the unity theme for me, as in "Who cares? No matter what, no matter where the idea of unity between the two is boring and absurd." The audience which holds this ritual to be sincere are the herd upon which all marketing departments prey.

I think the communities of Unity, Intercourse, Climax, or even Death Valley overstate the possible relevance of this ridiculous dance.

BK
Waiting for the kiss 7:29pm on 27 Jun 2008 16. Brit-ish-ish...

Unfortnately this 'blatant' insincerety will likely work...Obama's supporters are as inexperienced at life as he is on The Hill, and are mostly comprised of Xbox slackers sleeping on Mummie's couch til 10 a.m. before the go off to their 18 hour work week at Starbucks, or life-long public employees and school teachers, in other words career trough-suckers who depend on large and burgeoning government...they are of course going to change the course of the world (which they know nothing of) one $5 dollar Internet donation at a time. "Have faith! Change is coming!" fits nicely on a bumper sticker, and is well within the grasp of the short-attention-span generation who are convinced that wishing is as good as doing.

Meanwhile, any business which can will be moving more of its operation off-shore in self-defense of the impending wave of social justice (and statutory policies) which will flood America...after all corporate Amercia and the 'old boys' of DC are the problem and are in cahoots.

There's nothing wrong with America that naivete and organized labor can't fix. You go Forest!
Waiting for the kiss 04:55am on 27 Jun 2008 I'm astounded by the 'Forest Gump' theory as applied to politics...somehow someone who had 143 possible Senate sessions (but didn't attend them all) between his election to the Senate and the day he filed his intent to form a Presidential exploratory committee is more qualified to be President purely by venture of his lack of experience and his ability to collect money by Internet from people who lack experience? By this notion the candidates should have been drawn from a pool of Wal-Mart door greeters...they truly lack political experience. We could spend the first 2 years of the Presidency teaching the new President to read, and showing him how to eat with all of the flatware instead of just his butter knife.

A few years ago I had an Aortic valve replacement. I was tempted to choose a surgeon right out of residency because he would have no experience to clutter the simplicity of his thinking or constraining his creative juices. But I reconsidered and went with the veteran, heart-lung transplant guy.

Oversimplification and inexperience are not virtues...every Kindergartner possesses these qualities...they just don't have the slick script writers...."Have faith...change is coming!"
Gun crazy? 01:28am on 27 Jun 2008 And Justin as it regards your "...on a lighter note..." I reckon that Barack would kiss more than my baby if it meant he could get get my vote.
Gun crazy? 01:22am on 27 Jun 2008 Interestingly enough Mexico has the strictest gun laws in North America...even stricter than the UK-West (Canada)...and yet the murders, robberies and other assorted weapons related violence persists in Mexico.

If owning a gun became criminal in the U.S. only the only change would be that the criminal enterprises selling guns would prosper...the price of a weapon would go up, the voluntary registrations and waiting periods, background checks and screens would be eliminated as would the safety classes and licensed target ranges...but I would still own weapons, and carry them when I chose...that's the practical side of this argument.

As a Constitutional matter, a 'militia' is by definition a group of armed civilian warriors whose right to gun ownership is both symbolic of freedom and a cautionary warning to those who would abuse their privilege to govern. It must always be on the mind of those governing that their contituents volunteer to be governed and are armed.
The strange death of social conservatism 11:47pm on 24 Jun 2008 Comment 12.

"justcorbly" I think you're missing the point. By comparison, most Americans have heard of the Pope, and many will actually waste a precious day of vacation to stand by his parade route...but he still can't influence the practices of birth-control, abortion, or church attendance within his own 'flock.'

The historical fact is that Americans will resist governance by royalty or religion.

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