S&S Benefits.....Opinion,
Hearsay & News Review
The Medical Expenditure Panel
Survey found that 60% of the population age 18 and over had a least one chronic
health condition and these persons accounted for 9 out of every ten dollars
spent on medical care in 2005. Only about ¼ of expenses for emergency care were
associated with chronic conditions, but 3 out of every 4 dollars for
prescriptions were for chronic conditions. The average spent on people with one
chronic condition was $1,064 per year while those with two or more conditions
spent an average of $4,571 per year. For those over age 65 with two or more
chronic conditions the average per capita cost was over $6,000. Over 109 million
Americans report having cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease,
pulmonary conditions and mental disorders at a cost of $1.3 trillion dollars per
year ($1.1trillion in lost productivity and $277 billion on treatment).
In the unbelievable
category-HealthPartners in
Minnesota
has announced new mascots. Petey P. Cup (yes it is a yellow pee cup) and Pokey
the Syringe are supposed to make the health care process more “fun” and
“memorable.” How that works, we are not sure. Perhaps Pokey spears that
annoying Geico gecko, sticks him in the cup and gives it to the AFLAC duck. The
duck opens the top of the cup, freaks when it sees the gecko, causing the duck
to pee into Petey P. Cup? Gag me with a tongue depressor.
As of September 2007, total
compensation costs were 51.4% higher for state and local government employers
($39.50 per hour worked) than the private sector ($26.09). Education sector
employees accounted for 52.7% of all state and local government employees with
total compensation costs or $42.48 per hour worked. Health insurance costs were
$4.35 per hour (11% of compensation) for government employees and $1.85 per hour
(7.1% of compensation) for private sector employees.
Condell
Hospital
in
Libertyville
,
IL
had claimed that Blue Cross owed them $26 million in payments and sued the
company. However, Condell is being purchased by Advocate for $180 million and
BCBSIL has said that they have renewed their contract with Advocate and that
Condell is part of the deal. Condell had to sell because they were short of
money. There is something ironic and sick about all that.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (supercalifragilistic
for short) has surveyed 500 large employers and predicts that health costs will
increase by 9.6% on 2009 compared to 9.9% in 2008.
