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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (83240)	6/30/2000 2:04:53 AM
From: nihil	Respond to of 108807

Hawaii is maybe 7 - 8 in monetary PCI and in the middle in real PCI. The medical program is expensive. Businesses, especially small ones, hate the compulsory insurance which they consider an unbearable expense. We economists try to explain that costs borne by all competitors do not hurt domestic firms. We are very collectivistic and very cooperative. HMSA, the biggest medical service provider is controlled and run by a publicly selected board of directors from employers and individual members. It is not a corporation but a "mutual benefit association." Kaiser is number two. 8 years ago I had a six way bypass (billed to Kaiser for $100,000 plus Kaiser's own surgical team's costs). They tried to charge me $56 dollars for a stuffed bear and TV rental-- Sir Koffalot -- but I refused and paid them $6. We decided that was fair. The state is trying to privatise the public hospitals. They run a fair-sized deficit (about $20 per capita/year). One way or another the state will pay the deficits through subsidies either to the insureds or the hospitals. I don't think it much matters which. We have no "for profit" hospitals here. I am told that Kaiser full coverage (drugs, glasses, etc.) is $148 per person.