Monday, February 21, 2011

Repeat after me: Change is coming

If we fight change, we make it worse. We have to accept change is for the good - nothing was wrong before but maybe times have changed and we need to adapt to survive. This is similar to Darwin's theory - animals needed to adapt to survive.

The health care system is changing - I don't care what your politics are - but change is coming. Doctors will have different pay structure. The focus is changing to accountability and look at the overall health of the patient. It won't be about volume of patients and procedures that are permitted by the insurance companies.

Why is this happening?

- The current model isn't working. Insurance companies are telling doctors what to do and patients are going broke paying for their treatments or dying because they cant

- We are faced with an aging population and the baby boomers are all getting old at the same time. And life expectancy increased so we have more people living longer but with bad health.

- Insurance premiums are sky rocketing, squeezing every employer in the country who provides insurance. More costs are being pushed onto the employees, but unions are fighting this. They have historically been able to provide wage and benefit negotiations for the employees. And now that ability is being pressured as legislators attempt to change laws for flexibility.

This isn't about union busting. Labor unions have done amazing things over the years. They started to create safe working conditions for employees - think sweat shops. Laws were changed to back safe working conditions. Minimum wage requirements came along as well. Now unions help negotiate for their members on wage and benefit issues. But these benefits can be expensive.

Times are different now. People are doing more with less. Employers are doing more with less. Technology proportionally costs significantly less than 20 years ago. Health insurance proportionally costs significantly more. Employers could control the technology costs by buying fewer computers for their employees or spreading the purchase out over time. With health insurance, they are given a number they must meet or offer reduced benefits.

If an employer can't afford to pay for employees because the total cost of their salary and benefits is too high, they will get rid of employees. If you fight too hard against change, you may find yourself out of a job. When an employer says either a benefit cut or a head count cut, which would you prefer? Would you want a job where you earn less or no job?

For all of you who think that what is going on is union busting, its called change. If you fight it, things will be worse overall.

1 comment:

corporate liability insurance said...

Absolutely change is coming in the health care so is the increase in the policy prices. All though their is advancement in the medical care, insurance companies do charges more in the name of better medical services. What we all have to do is to face this situation and have to find ways to handle all the things i.e change calmly.

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