Still a bit under the weather?

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post. A lot has changed since then, but a lot has stayed the same. What has changed is Healthcare Reform is in the process of being implemented and also repealed--at the same time.

Being in the industry, health insurance, I have some unique views to the inner workings of HCR. It's kind of like watching sausage being made. If you knew what what was going into the meat grinder, you would stop eating it! Many people, however, don't take the same approach when standing at the window of government services. They know what kind of garbage is going into the grinder, but think that the end result is going to be some kind of masterful silver bullet that will make our health insurance cost 50% less, and do 100% more than it currently does.

Is it just me, or does it seem like people still believe in fairy tales? Healthcare still needs fixing, and there are now some new wounds caused by HCR to add to the mix. Primary among them, is the high cost of insurance. Oh wait, HCR was supposed to fix that. Oh well, at least they tried. 3000 pages of new government legislation and counting and we still have 50 million uninsured and health insurance premiums are rocketing skyward. Hmmmm..... Better HOPE that more CHANGE is on the way in 2012!

Feeling Better Now?

Well this has certainly been a fun last few months. We now have a new health care reform plan in place that no one can figure out. I for one need medical care to repair the damage the new healthcare reform plan did as it was shoved down my throat! It appears from what I hear and read that a lot of what was promised is missing! I suppose that just goes to show that maybe a little more care should have been taken in the design and implementation of this plan.

Clearly the heath insurance situation for Americans needs some repairs. If my car, a Saturn, is not running well my first thought is not to replace it with a Rolls Royce--something I can't afford and don't need. My first thought is to find out what the problem REALLY is and allow someone that specializes in that particular specialty fix it. People used to joke that when the ashtray was full on a B-52 the military just replaced replaced the plane rather than emptying the ashtray.

It seems that a good portion of the population is ready to scrap the plane rather than to simply empty the ashtray. Are we trying to give health insurance coverage to the non covered or are we trying to cover everyone in the country with health insurance? Lets first identify the problem, then implement a solution!

I heard some of the best philosophy I have ever heard on this matter from Dennis Miller, the comedian, on the Bill O"Reilley show recently. Miller said "we need to separate the helpless from the clueless. No one has a problem with helping the helpless, but we don't need to help those that have no desire to take care of themselves." That is good logic!

Just as I suspected!

Well, the Congress put out their version of health insurance reform yesterday and the bill that is going to clarify all of the problems with health insurance is in excess of one thousand nine hundred pages. I mentioned in an earlier post that the government that has created the most complicated tax collection code in the galaxy would be prone to doing the same thing with health insurance reform. I would say they are off to a great start. The IRS code currently has more words than the Bible. In fact, the number of pages in the code, according to some estimates, doubled from just over 26,000 pages in 1984 to almost 55,000 pages in 2003. I assume they are still counting trying to keep up with new revisions (or new ways to discriminate).

We know they are just getting started on this bill, so it is much like a new born baby, it will start gaining weight as it soon as it is able to begin suckling off of it's "birth mother" our Federal Government. Just like a new born, when it really has a chance to open it's eyes and flex it's new found powers of control, it will grow bigger and stronger everyday.

Polls show a growing number of people in all sectors of the voting population to be increasingly opposed to this type of overhaul. Undaunted, Pelosi, Reed, and the gang push forward just as parents tend to do when they "know what is best for the children." How silly of us to form our own opinions. I am not anti government, but I am smart enough to see that everything, absolutely everything, I'll say it again, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, the Federal Government touches costs more than is estimated, and grows way beyond the boundaries that are initially promised. I cannot think of one thing, one program, that our government has done to save us money. Even when they cut the budget, it's only a cut in the rate of growth. The government is like the lady who went to the mall and saved 50% on a $1,200.00 coat. Right away she went to work trying to figure out where to spend the $600.00 she had "saved."

This current headlong charge by our representatives in Washington to seize powers that are completely outside of our Constitution is only the largest and latest example of our slide toward Socialism. Even if you ignore the leadership of this President, tell me how the high-speed expansion of powers and programs outside the Constitution are anything but a slide in that direction. Our Constitution was designed to limit the powers of government, but the current batch of people up there now certainly don't want the facts to get it in the way of their grab for power. ALL of our representatives on both sides of isle have proven themselves to be less than honest. Some are in favor of the current legislation, some are opposed to the current legislation. The dirty secret that no one is talking about, is that they are ALL in favor of some type of power grab of the health insurance industry. The insurance industry controls more money than banking. The all want to get their grubby little mitts on it! They all talk as if some sort of legislation is a foregone conclusion! No matter how the bill turns out, even if it is limited in the governments eyes, it will be a massive transfer of power to Uncle Sam that we may never be able to get back.

Our bodies and therefore decisions on our health care are sacred! The choice of plans that finance our health care is a choice we have made. We vote with our pocketbooks. We simply need to change our buying habits and the system will adjust. It always has.

Where is the gang that has the bumper stickers that say "it's my body, not your choice" or "Keep your laws off my body." If government controls what procedures are covered and how much the doctor gets paid, then your healthcare will not be your choice!

And by the way, the current bill says it will cover 95% of the population. By my count that is approaching 20,000,000 million uninsured after this "baby" goes into effect. I thought that was whole driving force behind this bill, to cover the uninsured.

Am I missing something here?

Have a winning day!

Steve

Open Enrollment/Open Decision Time

Well, open enrollment season for health benefits is upon us. Many businesses are concerned about the movements in Washington and how it will effect their employee benefits package. Many business owners want to take a wait and see approach in making their decisions. Employees and their families are still going to need the health insurance they have come to rely on. No-one wants to go without coverage or can afford to be without. As confusing and uncertain as conditions may appear, decisions have to be made. The most recent plans moving through either house have provisions that indicate they will start in or after 2013.

Much of the so called reform legislation is yet to be written, let alone voted on or debated. A great deal of work and effort is yet to come if we are to truly have reform in this area of our economy. The poll data I looked at this morning indicates that 54% of Americans do not support the reforms that are currently being pushed. It may be back to the drawing board before this is all said and done. Something as serious and complicated as the financing of health care, a $2.2 trillion dollar item at 16.2% of GDP, deserves all of the debate, discussion, arguing, revising, and reinventing that we can put forward. My guess is that we must be very careful how we fix this. We may not get the chance for any quick do-overs with health insurance reform. It will be a very slippery slope, so let's urge our representatives to take it slow. Just think of how much anger or disappointment you feel when your employer changes your policy. Can you imagine if you are forced into a one size fits all plan? There is no way the government can afford to make sure we all have the best, so it will have to be a one size fits all plan on the lower end of the scale.

Employers fight hard every year to make sure their hard working employees have the best plan that the employee and the employer can afford. The average cost for employee only health insurance premiums was $9,144 in 2007. If you are working in small company that has 20 employees and the employer is picking up 100% of the employee only coverage, your employer is paying $182,880 per year just for employee only health care premiums. If your employer picks up any of the cost of the dependent cost then the tab could easily top $250,000 per year. We all need to make sure we are buying what we need and being responsible users of health care. Most people don't realize, because the industry and employers have done a poor job communicating, that the average name brand prescription costs $135.00 per month. Health care adds up very quickly.

It is easy to demonize the health insurance industry, but remember no one is immune from the scrutiny of this government and your industry may be targeted next. What if Uncle Sam came knocking on your door tomorrow and said "we need to reform your industry to save the economy." I am guessing none of us would be very happy no matter who we work for.

Freedom is not free and health insurance from the government won't be either! Make your choices wisely.

Have a winning day!

Steve

Health Insurance Solutions

Opponents of our current health insurance system continue to make good points along the way. One of the best I have read lately refers to the optimal size of a health insurance pool. I have not read any statistics lately on that topic, but I know from experience that you don't really start realizing the power of a large group until you top 1000 employees. The opponents contend that our current system and any proposed system of "competition" only makes matters worse. They say by creating more competition you further split the employee pool into smaller pools thus defeating the original purpose of health insurance that is to spread health risks over as large a pool as possible. Taking the insurance concept to the extreme would indicate that a single payer system, like other countries use, would ultimately be the best choice. Until someone can prove to me that any one organization, private or public, can handle all of the responsibility, and physically all of the information and administration necessary to provide for such a plan while not ultimately rationing the care to lower cost, I will continue my staunch support of the private sector maintaining control over the financing of healthcare.

There is just no possible way that the federal government would be able to take over the entire health insurance industry, even something as mundane as collecting premiums and processing claims, and do it efficiently. It sounds good in theory, but for example look at the IRS. Something that should be very simple, assessing and collecting taxes, has become the most complex administrative nightmare in the history of civilization and all in the name of "fairness." Can you imagine that a government takeover of our health insurance system and in effect the healthcare system would be any different? So much power in the hands of so few is what has created the nightmare at the IRS. Dealing out goodies as it relates to healthcare financing in the form of "government run insurance" would certainly be more tempting in the grab for the voter base than the tax code currently presents. No matter which side of the debate you are on, it seems everyone wants to assume there are just a few problems that if addressed will solve all problems. There exists multiple problems that will require multiple fixes and I do not believe that the federal government will EVER be able to deliver the goods. Our healthcare system IS the best in the world, and we are different. I for one don't want to be like the rest of the world. It has nothing to offer that is not better here. We need to come up with better solutions from the free market system in COOPERATION with the federal government to develop a system that will maintain our status as the envy of the world. We should not settle for a substandard "everyone else is doing it approach." Let's leave that to form of reasoning to our elementary age children!

Have a winning day!

Steve

To Outsource or not to Outsource, that is the question!

In the business world today some words take on different or unusual meanings. Webster's added over 100 new words to the dictionary in 2007. Heck we even have new words created daily. Most of them are not difficult to figure out their meaning, but some are. Many people use or create acronyms and sometimes those are hard to figure out. With the rising popularity of texting, we had better get with the program. As a matter of fact, there is one of the new words in that last sentence. Fifteen years ago you would never tell anyone you had been "texted." Now you may have been texted a dozen times before you get out of bed each morning and you do not even know it until later in the day! LOL (Laugh out loud) we are constantly looking for ways to save time so we can do more. Don't we already have enough to do now?

Speaking of saving time, how does a business owner do that? In business, really all we have is our time and intellect, right? I mean when you strip it all down to the bare bones, it is those people who manage their time and their intellectual capital the best that gain the upper hand. So creating more time to work on improving the business would make sense right? How do you create more time? There are, after all, only 24 hours in a day so creating more time is really impossible. Or is it..... Outsourcing has become an accepted way to create more time. Most people don't think of it as creating more time, they think of it as becoming more efficient. Outsourcing simply takes a portion of the workload and assigns it to another company that can do the work more efficiently because they are set up to do so. Car manufacturers are a perfect example. They don't manufacture every single part that goes into car, it would be far too complicated and expensive.

So why do small businesses have such a difficult time outsourcing parts of their business that they cannot do as efficiently or effectively as an outsourcing service? I think it is because they do not fully understand the concept of outsourcing. Outsourcing HR has been increasing in popularity in recent years as more and more business owners become more familiar with the outsourcing concept and more comfortable with the idea that a well run outsourcing arrangement can really create more time inside an existing business that in return can create increased profits by allowing a business owner to have his staff spend more time focus on core business strategy.

Most business owners did not go into business to be an employer. I have said in the past, the employer function is simply a side effect of having a successful business. Most businesses are loathe to spend money "HR" because they view it not as a source of income, but as a drain on profits. HR is the last place they wish to spend money. I think that is because they don't stop and think what an efficient and well planned HR strategy can do. Outsourcing HR instantly creates an HR infrastructure that can literally catapult a business to heights of success not imagined. Like it or not, employees drive the direction of your business. If your business does not have a firm HR infrastructure in place, your concept of "control" may be skewed. Outsourcing HR may be a viewed by some as an admission of defeat. It should merely be looked upon as a new direction or strategy to ultimate success.

Yes, many businesses do just fine with their current HR practices. Those tried and true strategies that have served them over the last twenty years. "I don't need any help with HR" I often hear. "We are doing just fine." I sometimes wonder why people like that aren't driving an Edsel. Could it be, that there was a better idea for a car that came along and we all jumped on board? Maybe there are better ways to run a successful business by partnering with someone that has an idea for a "better way to do business." Check it out! Using a Professional Employer Organization can relieve the side effects successful businesses experience with attracting, retaining, and managing a workforce.

Want to do more with less? Think about outsourcing.

Have a winning day!

Steve

New Widget

If you have not noticed, I have a follow widget on my site. Keeping up with many Blogs is difficult. using the Friend Follower Feature on my Blog will simplify this process for you. You can follow me privately, or follow me publicly. I hope you will click on the Follow button and return often. Thanks for reading!