Health Care Reform Opposition

I see that the US Chamber of Commerce, is again running ads against health care reform. They want citizens to call the targeted legislator to encourage him or her to "stand up for jobs" and vote against health care reform as it's "a health care bill we can't afford."

The US Chamber of Commerce is the lobbying arm for Big Business. They're anti-government, anti-regulation, anti-consumer, and anti-employee. While claiming to represent businesses of all sizes, and now, apparently, legions of the unemployed, they only really represent large business interests.

So, why would large companies (Big Business) want to continue with the current costly and unsustainable health care system? After all, Big Business was quick to abandon traditional pension plans when they were deemed to be too costly. They were quick to cut wages, and lay off millions of employees when the employees were deemed to be too costly.

Yet, for some reason, Big Business doesn't want Health Care Reform. They, have fought hard to prevent any reform from passing. They, and their Republican allies, have used every lie and distortion imaginable to deceive and frighten the American public. Some of these have included:

- It's a Government take-over of Health Care. We can't allow Government to take-over 1/6th of our economy.
- The Government will appoint "death squads" to deny critical care to dying people.
- The Government won't allow you to see the doctor of your choice.
- Health Care will be rationed.
- A bureaucrat will stand between you and your doctor.
- They're going to cut Medicare. Too bad, old folks.
- The reform bill is too big. There are too many pages to read. Stop, then take smaller steps toward reform.

Distortion. Lies. Lies, upon lies, followed by more lies. It's been a full force Marketing blitz, complete with the obligatory political sound bites. It's been designed to confuse the American people, while scaring them into believing that health care reform is a bad thing. Meanwhile, big business goes on as usual while health care costs continue to rise, and more and more people become uninsured.

A Big Business marketing campaign is a powerful thing. Most are designed to convince millions of otherwise smart people that they can't possibly do without the product being advertised, no matter what it is ("Doctor, I need that new drug, "Snake Oil," which I saw on TV. Tell me what it does.").

Advertising convinced millions of people to smoke. For years the tobacco companies swore smoking was safe and they made billions of dollars selling their harmful products to unsuspecting consumers.

Effective marketing, and the 24/7 cheer-leading by Fox Newz (not to be confused with any real news organization), stoked public opinion to support starting two costly, and unnecessary, wars. In fact, the marketing was so successful that about 25% of the population still believes that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.

Today, due to another effective marketing misinformation campaign, a similar percentage of the population believes that the entire national debt was caused by the Democrats. They seemingly have forgotten that it was Republicans that started two costly wars while refusing to pay for them. It was the first time in history that taxes were not raised to pay for a war. They also forget that it was (Big Business) corporate greed along with lax oversight by a Republican administration which nearly toppled the World's economy. Yet the Republicans continue to call for more tax cuts as the nation falls deeper into debt.

But, I digress.

Why does Big Business want to keep the country's health care system as it is today?

One might make a good argument that providing health care insurance to their employees is a valuable Profit Center for large companies (Big Business).

Let me explain.

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 89% of workers employed in firms of 5,000 or more employees (read Big Business) were covered by a self-insured health care plan offered by their employer. And, overall, 55% of all workers with health insurance are covered by a self-insured plan offered by their employer. The data is from 2008.

In a self-insured plan, the employer in effect becomes the insurance company. The employer decides what benefits to offer, how much those benefits are worth, and how much to charge their employees. In turn, they typically hire another company (often an insurance company) to administer their plan. In many cases, their employees don't even know that they're covered by a self-insured plan, believing instead that the plan administrator is the insurer.

To limit their risk, many self-insured companies have put caps on annual, or lifetime, benefits. Once an employee reaches one of the limits, they are no longer covered under the plan. Other companies buy blanket insurance policies which kick-in to cover any expenses which exceeded a given amount. Either way, the self-insured employer's risk is limited. Making a profit is almost guaranteed.

Offering self-insured health-care provides a number of advantages to large companies. The plans typically are exempt from state insurance regulations and mandates. The companies can offer different plans to different groups of employees (for example, offering the best coverage to the executive group). And, as the insurer, the employer is entitled to review the medical records of their employees.

Insurance companies have tended to be quite profitable. Is it unreasonable to think that self-insured plans have also been quite profitable for large (Big Business) employers?

It's also quite possible that self-insured companies attempt to tilt the odds in their favor, just like traditional insurance companies do, by eliminating high risk or high cost patients from their plans.

In fact, it's much easier for self-insured employers to eliminate high risk patients from their plans. An insurance company must figure out how to drop coverage for a patient without causing regulators to become suspicious. All the employer has to do is fire the employee, with no reference made to the cost of providing health care. It's simple. When an employee is diagnosed with an expensive chronic illness, or any condition which is predicted to require significant expenditures in the future, the company can quietly fire the employee in the midst of a "strategic corporate realignment" combined with a few "targeted layoffs."

So, I guess can understand why Big Business, the US Chamber of Commerce, and their Republican allies want to fight health care reform. The current system is profitable for Big Business, while providing extraordinary control over their employees. The fact that it stinks for everyone else is irrelevant. If it's good for Big Business it's good for the country. So sayeth the US Chamber of Commerce and the Republicans.

God Help Us.