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To: LindyBill who wrote (194527)	1/28/2007 1:51:59 PM
From: Alan Smithee	Respond to of 794011

I have been with Kaiser here in the Islands for four years, and I think they are the "Gold Standard" of HMO service. My wife became ill when we were on Maui 2 years ago and was hospitalized for 4 days. Treatment was provided through Kaiser. We have Group Health, which has a coordinating arrangement with Kaiser. The entire hospitalization and course of treatment cost us less than $100 out of pocket.

To: LindyBill who wrote (194527)	1/28/2007 2:04:06 PM
From: Murrey Walker	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 794011

I'm 64 and my wife is almost 63. I've been a small business owner since 1974, so health insurance and I are no strangers. It's been an interesting ride. When I started my business, I paid employees premiums and quite often with more senior folks, their dependants premiums became a perk. In the mid eighties, not only did I discontinue the dependant premium benefit, I started having employees pay a portion of their benefit. Today, it's only my wife and I. We received a notification of premium increase of (only 17%). If we continue with our insurance as it is, our annual premium is a few dollars shy of $24,000. And neither one of us have had any claims that exceeded our deductible of $1000, save an arthro procedure I just had on my knee. And, we've been with this company for twelve years! Unfortunately, our government, the insurance industry, the hospitals, and the healthcare community are all guilty of over servicing their respective needs. It will not be us, but our children and grandchildren who will suffer the consequences of a system completely run amuck.

To: LindyBill who wrote (194527)	1/28/2007 6:21:32 PM
From: skinowski	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794011

Yes, I hear a lot of positive things about Kaiser. And why not - Canada and Britain and others with a nationalized health care system seem to like them too. In NY, Medicare HMO's are a bunch of clowns hassling for business, each trying to the mislead the public that they are better than the rest. They are not: They each play with the same exact amount of federal funding per beneficiary. Another thing they all have in common, is they they all retain about 20 to 25% of the federal funding as their costs and profits. The balance is spent on patient care. Imo, that's a disturbingly high overhead cost. The Feds do it all for about 5% total. Real health care costs, as I mentioned previously, are not the Dr's fees. Unless those other issues are addressed, costs will remain high. Healthy older people are not "expensive" -- it is after they become ill that cost problems arise. Historically, about 5 - 6% of health care dollar goes to the "primary care" physician. Capitation fees are based on those historic levels. Indeed, a $35 - 50 capitation per patient per month - at the present $700+ funding level - adds up to about the same thing. If at some point all Docs become salaried (of which capitation is a form), the general level of Dr's pay will probably remain fairly close to today's levels. There is certainly a lot to be said in favor of a one payer system. It will not be pretty, but it will work. The biggest objection is that the government would get - almost overnight - another trillion+ dollars to distribute. That's a lot of power.