Workplace Calisthenics: Managed care continues to careen out of control

$1,128. How do you "feel" about that number?

If those digits represented the cost of a new bass boat, you would be dancing on top of your Bud Lite cooler right now. If that amount was the cost of gassing up your Navigator SUV, you may be looking for some old prescription drugs in a medicine cabinet.

How about if that series of numbers is your monthly bill for managed care costs?

My wife and I both are 56 with no significant health problems and $1,128 was the new monthly cost from our HMO (an unnamed Springfield-based company). The only health problem I have now is hyperventilating when writing the check for $1,128.

Are you "feeling" anything yet?

If you are in my age bracket (somewhere between "ripe" to "going bad" category), I'll bet you "feel" along with me on this issue.

The health care of this nation is wobbling around and the wheels are about to come off. This nation must talk, debate and then do something about this problem that is economically tantamount to a terrorist attack.

There are four facts all of us need to know.

First, health care spending shot up 7 percent in 2000, the largest increase since 1993. Did you notice that increase was passed along to you through employer health care plans that rose 8 percent (undoubtedly 1 percent for a "handling fee") the same year?

In 2001 the increase was another 11 percent. According to the Springfield Area Manufacturers Association, among its members, that percentage increase actually was 24.3 percent.

We, the consumers, are paying for every inefficiency, stupid management decision and iota of corporate greed in this system.

Second, managed care, the business process, is not a bad idea. At the core of this approach is the principle of economies of scale and competition. In a capitalistic society, both of these initiatives should put more green backs in the pocket of the consumer and get better care in the process.

As a matter of fact, in 1993 when managed care slipped into the wake of the Bill and Hillary's ill-fated attempt at national health care, most economists believed health care spending would rise to 17 percent of gross national product. In actuality, it only rose to 13.2 percent over the next seven years.

Third, regardless of whether or not you are a smoker, we are all paying for this addiction. Last year, this nation spent $147 billion to treat smoking-related illnesses and lost productivity because someone was home hacking instead of working.

So I finish writing my monthly check for $1,128 and then go to some restaurant and watch the folks in the smoking section puffing my retirement income into the ventilation system.

Fourth, there is a train coming down the road and no one in Washington seems to have the smarts or intestinal fortitude to push us out of the way.

It is the Boomer Express. There are 80 million of us, caught in the middle of downsizing and eligibility for Medicare, many of whom are uninsured. Today there are 39 million Americans who have no medical insurance. If you can afford the rise in health care premiums, you are saying, "who cares?"

Let's think this through. If there is a significant number of us who cannot afford health care then preventative medicine are not being practiced, pain is not being reported and, therefore, catastrophic care goes out of sight.

Guess who pays for that? That's right, the $1,128 monthly premium folks.

When we wake up and smell the rubber gloves with these four facts it is obvious that something must be done. How about these four initiatives in response: 1) Immediately expand affordable health care coverage through governmental intervention; 2) Demand that President Bush give us his "enough is enough" speech declaring the government will no longer pay for any smoking-related illness; 3) Refuse to do business with any HMO that does not produce a sound return on investment; and, 4) Require any new representative or senator to make Medicare reform the highest priority during the next legislative session.

$1,128. Are you feeling anything yet?

(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, Exec-utive Enrichment Inc., can be contacted via the Business Journal at sbj @sbj.net.)