Hillary Care 2.0

I guess I should say something about Hillary Clinton's newest health care proposal since it's what everybody is talking about lately. OK, so she's learned a few lessons on the health care issue. This effort is opposed by both extreme left and extreme right and supported generally by the middle. The big difference is the climate of the country has changed. Insurance rates have gone up for a decade and coverage has declined. Today we have 46 million people uninsured which taxes the entire health care system.

What is interesting is that Hillary accepts a lot of money from the drug and medical industries now. In fact, she's the #2 recipient of donations from the pharmaceutical lobby, which has to make you question her goals and priorities.

I don't know if this is the right plan or not. We spend more on health care than any other nation at 16% of GDP. Perhaps if Britain (8%) or France (9%) spent more then they wouldn't have the long waits and other problems with their systems. With the aging Baby Boomer population it's clear that something has to be done and this political race is an opportunity to air a lot of ideas to begin building a consensus.

U.S. Rank Continues Fall

The Associated Press has reported the classic "good news/bad news" story. The U.S. life expectancy at birth for 2005 rose to 77.9 years, an increase of a full year since 2000.

The bad news is that we rank #42 in the world. In other words while we're doing well more than 40 other countries are doing better. When you consider that the U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation on earth, 16% of our Gross Domestic Product, you appreciate that we're not getting a good return for our investment.

Other countries don't rely on prescription drugs and they capitalize on prevention.

Rising Insurance Costs

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation the cost of insurance premiums has gone up 78% since 2001, much more than the 19% increase in wages and 17% jump in inflation. This year the amount went up 6.1% while wages went up 3.7% and inflation rose just 2.6%. Kaiser estimates that 1 to 2 million people join the ranks of uninsured every year.

Confusing Medical Bills

There are several new tools to help you unsnarl the confusing pile of medical bills. Anyone who's ever had major treatment with allopathic (mainstream) medicine knows how the bills pile up from every facet of treatment and insurance companies until it's hard to know which end is up. Most of these new services are web-based except for Quicken which is software for your home computer.

SmartMedicalConsumer is free and features automatic error detection.

MedBillManager charges a $25 annual fee but also lets you see what others in your area are paying for services.

Quicken Medical Expense Manager is a $50 software program you load on your computer to manage medical bills and maintain a family medical and prescription history.

Revolution Health is the premium service started by AOL founder Steve Case. It charges $129 annually but in addition to managing medical bills it also offers personalized telephone service for medical and insurance questions. They'll even fight for disputed insurance claims on your behalf.

In any case, GOOD LUCK.

Health Care Costs Escalate

The cost for health coverage is expected to increase 6.7% next year, the most since 2004. As usual, employees are expected to shoulder the biggest share. Costs have gone up more than 6% for the last 3 years which is DOUBLE the rate of inflation and wage increases.

America already spends 16% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care, how long can these increases continue before it breaks the bank? We need to look at what we're paying for because it directly impacts how much we pay. Then we can worry about who's paying. Complementary and alternative therapies have a lot to offer Americans, if the drug companies and medical establishment aren't successful in taking away our freedom to choose.

Gold Standard Human Genome

J. Craig Venter may have lost the race to decode the human genome but he has managed to set the bar a little higher by completely decoding his own genome. The government-financed consortium finished the genome in 2003 with then state-of-the-art technology. Today after nearly five more years and $10 million he completed the new diploid version that is entirely his own DNA. This more complete sequence has become the new gold standard in genetic research.

Living To 100

Big front-page article in today's Dallas Morning News about how there were nearly 80,000 people 100 years old or more in the U.S. in 2006. The number has been doubling about every 10 years and is expected to continue to rise.

Sounds great until you contrast that with the fact that the lifespan of a child born in our country in 2004 ranks #42 in the world.

More important is the quality of life at extreme old age. The U.S. healthcare system does a great job of keeping people alive but a poor job of maintaining life. We need to focus more on the quality of the years instead of the quantity.