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Families lose Kid’s Care but Find Other Options

September 30, 2009 By 1 Comment

Here in Arizona, the state subsidized “Kids Care for Parents” health coverage program is ending this week.  Hundreds of Arizonans will lose their state subsidized health coverage. The “Kids Care for Parents” program is being cut from the state budget and lawmakers hope to save about $7 million a year.  Sounds just like every other health-care horror story, doesn’t it?

But people DO have other options when they lose their health coverage.  KGUN News in Tucson reports on just such an option.  The Pima County Access Program (not to be confused with Arizona’s Medicaid System, AHCCCS) provides an interesting alternative.

What is the Pima County Access Program (PCAP)? Program Director Michal Goforth describes the program this way;

“If you could think about a medical discount program for the uninsured, it’s like Costco. You buy a membership and you receive highly discounted prices”.  And what you get for a 40 dollar annual membership may surprise you. This non-profit team of about 10 employees who negotiates with local hospitals and doctors to lower prices on procedures and set caps on medical expenses.  “I’m telling you that this is a very creative program in our community,”Goforth said.

PCAP utilizes the services of local medical centers like El Rio and Marana Health Services.  PCAP has contracts with the county and local hospitals to perform health screenings. They are also a traditional non-profit organization, so they also receive donations.  They are also expected to receive some federal funding in the near future.

So despite what the agenda driven politicians tell you, there are other options out there.  You might have to do a bit of work to find them.  Is this the final answer to the challenges that we all face when it comes to affordable health coverage?  The issue is too complex to find a one-size-fits-all solution.  But this is a good place to start.

Kudos to KGUN news for doing their due diligence on this story and finding some real world solutions, sans the political machine.

Please check out PCAP at www.pcap.cc or call them at (520) 694-0418.

Filed Under: Health Care

Expanding health insurance won’t lower health care costs

September 30, 2009 By 11 Comments

By Byron Schlomach 
Goldwater Institute
 
President Obama and Senator Max Baucus are proposing a radical expansion of health insurance, but selling it as health care reform. Unfortunately, expanded insurance coverage is likely to worsen the real problem in health care: the high and rising prices of care.

Since World War II, Americans have become increasingly dependent on others to pay their medical bills. These third-party payers include Medicaid and Medicare, and employer-provided pre-paid health plans (what we call insurance). In 1954 federal tax law codified standard practice at the time and exempted benefits from taxation. This allows employers to avoid payroll taxes while employees avoid income taxes.

The last 50 years have shown us that neither patients nor providers are particularly frugal when others are paying the bill. In 1960 patients directly paid half the total health bill and medical prices were relatively the same as in 1935. By 2006 patients paid an eighth of the health care bill and medical prices had more than doubled in relative terms.

In this country, where health providers price as if cost is no object (and for patients with insurance, it mostly isn’t), a heart bypass might cost $140,000. Travel overseas and you can get the same procedure for $24,000. It makes a difference when providers compete on the basis of price.

The goal in health care reform should be to find the least painful way to transition back to having patients be responsible for their own health care bills. Good policy would: 1) Put all health expenditures on an equal income tax footing, 2) Encourage people to save for health eventualities through expanded health savings accounts that allow for truly catastrophic health insurance policies, 3) Allow a nationwide insurance market without mandated coverage, and 4) Require posting of medical service prices so consumers can know the price of the services and procedures they want to buy before making the purchase.

To truly address this nation’s health care cost crisis, we have to get at the root of the problem. These policy changes would help bring costs down by reversing the price is no object mentality and encouraging providers to compete for business.
 
Byron Schlomach, Ph.D, is director of economic policy at the Goldwater Institute.

Filed Under: Federal Budget, Health Care, Spending

Guns, Bars & A Blast from the Past

September 30, 2009 By 7 Comments

Mark DesimoneRemember this Democrat? This is Mark DeSimone, former Democratic state legislator from legislative district 11 who resigned after being busted for a domestic violence dispute with his wife. Well he’s back in the news again. This time as an example of what’s supposedly wrong with Arizona’s latest law upholding the 2nd Amendment.

Apparently, DeSimone doesn’t like the new law which allows law-abiding citizens to wear their firearm into a bar. DeSimone owns the Hidden House Cocktail Lounge in Phoenix and has posted signs that will NOT allow patrons to carry their firearms into his lounge.

According to the story posted by the Associated Press,

“I hate to have to put them up,” Mark DeSimone, owner of the Hidden House Cocktail Lounge in central Phoenix, said of the signs. “It looks scary. It looks to somebody like, should I go in this place because they obviously have a problem with people bringing weapons in.”

DeSimone has signs banning guns next to his liquor license and outside the bar.

He said every bar owner should be concerned about the possible consequences of allowing anyone into a bar with a gun.

“You don’t want people to even have a stick,” he said. “When I take steak knives out (for customers), I look for the ones that don’t have pointy ends.”

We simply find it deliciously ironic to see someone like DeSimone worry about someone else drinking too much and acting crazy.

Filed Under: 2nd Amendment, Liberals