I just heard the BEST 'This American Life' about Health Care. Ask Me Anything!!

[Bonobo]

I now understand it all. Ask me anything.

I know:

Why our health care system is the way it is and it is one WEIRD story. Really hard to tell. This American Life does an AWESOME JOB.

Please, please, please listen to it. You will learn a tremendous amount you probably did not know.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=392

392: Someone Else's Money

This week, we bring you a deeper look inside the health insurance industry. The dark side of prescription drug coupons. A story about Pet Health Insurance, which is in its infancy, and how it is changing human behaviors—for example, if you have the pet health insurance, you bring your pet to the vet more often, and the vet makes more money and...well, you can see the parallels. And insurance company jargon, frighteningly decoded.

Prologue.
Host Ira Glass describes the crazy world of medical billing, where armies of coders use several contradictory different systems of codes...and none of it makes us healthier. (5 minutes)

Act One. One Pill Two Pill, Red Pill Blue Pill.

Planet Money's Chana Joffe-Walt explains why prescription drug coupons could actually be increasing how much we pay, and prevent us from even telling how much drugs cost. (13 1/2 minutes)

Act Two. Let's Take Your Medical History.

Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson recount how four accidental steps led to enacting the very questionable system of employers paying for health care. (11 1/2 minutes)

Act Three. Insurance? Ruh Roh!

Planet Money correspondent David Kestenbaum investigates the growing popularity of pet insurance, and what it reveals about insurance for people. (14 minutes )

Act Four. Sorry Johnny... It's Only Business.

This American Life producer Sarah Koenig reports on a very surprising reason why insurance companies dump members, and how this reasoning contradicts President Obama's argument for what will lower health care costs. (11 1/2 minutes)

Song: "Give Me the Cure," Fugazi

[clear eye]

1. Good, but

I bet I could still stump you w/ the variables of the proposed "public" options.

Let me try one--

"As currently proposed in Congressional bills, will the public option be administered by an agency of the government, or by private insurers?"

[Bonobo]

3. You got me stumped! nt

[clear eye]

4. Unfortunately, all the bills that include a "public" option describe something privatized.

At least one of the bills specifies "not-for-profits", like Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Don't think that restriction is in the others. They talk about outside the gov't administrators and describe qualifications that could only be met by insurers. The only exception to private administrators I can think of is if a state decided that the agency that administers Medicaid would do it in their state. And that would only be possible in a bill that proposes multiple geographically based "exchanges". At least one bill wants a single large "exchange".

But keep studying. You've made a good start.

[rhett o rick]

2. k&r1