{~_~} Раиса
2014-03-24 22:49:39 UTC
If you're covered by both your provincial health program, like MSP,
OHIP, AHS, etc. you likely also have private coverage from the likes of
Manulife, Great-West Life, Pacific Blue Cross, Sun Life, etc.
Look at WHY you're paying more for less from these private healthcare
providers - almost all of which are headquartered in the United States.
Same old, same old . . . give it to the private sector and you WILL get
screwed over. And take a look at the recommendations for changing
what's going wrong.
Remember 'MSA' in British Columbia?
______________________________________
CBC News Posted: Mar 24, 2014
Private health insurance in Canada deemed inefficient
People either pay higher private health insurance premiums or get lower
wages due to claim gap
About 60 per cent of Canadians are covered by private health insurance
for health-care services such as prescription drugs. (Jacques
Boissinot/Canadian Press)
Private health insurance should be better regulated in Canada, say
researchers who found the gap between premiums and payouts in claims
reached $6.8 billion in 2011.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
About 60 per cent of Canadians are covered by private health insurance
for health-care services such as prescription drugs, health-care
economists say. Most are insured through their employers, with
for-profit firms dominating the industry, said study author Michael Law
of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University
of British Columbia in Vancouver.
"When we looked across the for-profit insurers in Canada over the past
20 years, for the plans that are typically bought by individuals and
small- or medium-sized employers, there was a pretty dramatic change in
the gap between the premiums people paid in and the benefits that got
paid back to them," Law said in an interview.
"Whereas Canadians were paying in a dollar and getting 92 cents back in
1991, they were paying a dollar and getting 74 cents in 2011."
Canadians need to realize those costs are ultimately passed on to them
directly in higher premiums or indirectly as lower wages, Law stressed.
Obamacare insurance model
While most health care in Canada is paid for publicly, Law’s team said
private health insurance plays a major supporting role, particularly for
prescription drugs, dental services and eye care. The expenditures
totalled $22.7 billion in 2010 or about 12 per cent of health-care
spending, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
In the U.S., when a greater share of premium revenues goes toward
administration and profits, under the Affordable Care Act, known as
Obamacare, the excess has to be rebated to plan members to the tune of
$1.1 billion in 2012. . . .
Canada has no such requirement, the study’s authors noted in a study
published Monday’s in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, titled
"The increasing inefficiency of private health insurance in Canada."
"We ought to consider regulating private insurance more effectively and
I think the U.S. can provide a pretty good model because based on our
numbers, Americans are now actually doing better than Canadians in terms
of how much they're getting back out of their health insurance plan,"
Law said.
Options for better value
The study's authors said governments could take a couple of approaches
to improving the situation: replace private insurance with more
efficient public alternatives, or impose new regulations on the private
insurance sector.
For prescription drugs, the authors said evidence supports savings from
universal public coverage at a societal level. Regulation, such as
provincial requirements for more transparency on non-medical spending
from private insurance firms, would likely give Canadians better value,
they said.
Law said when he started to see the findings, small business owners
expressed frustrations to him about how their costs generally rose one
or two per cent every year, benefits were going up five to 15 per cent
every year.
When Jeff Chatterton of Kitchener, Ont., looked into health insurance
coverage for his family, he decided the expense wasn’t worth it for
himself, his wife and sons, aged four and six.
“We were around $200 a month, and $2,400 buys a whole lot of dental care
and orthotics,” in a year, said Chatterton, owner of Checkmate Public
Affairs, which specializes in crisis communications for the travel and
tourism industry.
"The math didn't just not make sense. It didn't make any sense."
Chatterton said he'd like to have health insurance and he'd reconsider
if the price went down or his family's needs change.
The researchers analyzed 20 years of reports from the Canadian Life and
Health Insurance Association and adjusted for inflation.
The association said without private insurance coverage, pressures on
scarce public resources would be greater.
The group called the study "misleading." In an email, a spokeswoman for
the industry group said the researchers did not include data from the
not-for-profit sector. As well, the group said that including income
replacement benefits, such as disability and critical illness insurance
that are not health-care expenses, "further skews the data."
Law countered that he wanted to look at for-profit insurance only for an
apples-to-apples comparison. He said the association itself groups data
such as critical illness insurance as related to health.
The research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Law has consulted for Health Canada on unrelated pharmaceutical policy
research.
OHIP, AHS, etc. you likely also have private coverage from the likes of
Manulife, Great-West Life, Pacific Blue Cross, Sun Life, etc.
Look at WHY you're paying more for less from these private healthcare
providers - almost all of which are headquartered in the United States.
Same old, same old . . . give it to the private sector and you WILL get
screwed over. And take a look at the recommendations for changing
what's going wrong.
Remember 'MSA' in British Columbia?
______________________________________
CBC News Posted: Mar 24, 2014
Private health insurance in Canada deemed inefficient
People either pay higher private health insurance premiums or get lower
wages due to claim gap
About 60 per cent of Canadians are covered by private health insurance
for health-care services such as prescription drugs. (Jacques
Boissinot/Canadian Press)
Private health insurance should be better regulated in Canada, say
researchers who found the gap between premiums and payouts in claims
reached $6.8 billion in 2011.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
About 60 per cent of Canadians are covered by private health insurance
for health-care services such as prescription drugs, health-care
economists say. Most are insured through their employers, with
for-profit firms dominating the industry, said study author Michael Law
of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University
of British Columbia in Vancouver.
"When we looked across the for-profit insurers in Canada over the past
20 years, for the plans that are typically bought by individuals and
small- or medium-sized employers, there was a pretty dramatic change in
the gap between the premiums people paid in and the benefits that got
paid back to them," Law said in an interview.
"Whereas Canadians were paying in a dollar and getting 92 cents back in
1991, they were paying a dollar and getting 74 cents in 2011."
Canadians need to realize those costs are ultimately passed on to them
directly in higher premiums or indirectly as lower wages, Law stressed.
Obamacare insurance model
While most health care in Canada is paid for publicly, Law’s team said
private health insurance plays a major supporting role, particularly for
prescription drugs, dental services and eye care. The expenditures
totalled $22.7 billion in 2010 or about 12 per cent of health-care
spending, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
In the U.S., when a greater share of premium revenues goes toward
administration and profits, under the Affordable Care Act, known as
Obamacare, the excess has to be rebated to plan members to the tune of
$1.1 billion in 2012. . . .
Canada has no such requirement, the study’s authors noted in a study
published Monday’s in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, titled
"The increasing inefficiency of private health insurance in Canada."
"We ought to consider regulating private insurance more effectively and
I think the U.S. can provide a pretty good model because based on our
numbers, Americans are now actually doing better than Canadians in terms
of how much they're getting back out of their health insurance plan,"
Law said.
Options for better value
The study's authors said governments could take a couple of approaches
to improving the situation: replace private insurance with more
efficient public alternatives, or impose new regulations on the private
insurance sector.
For prescription drugs, the authors said evidence supports savings from
universal public coverage at a societal level. Regulation, such as
provincial requirements for more transparency on non-medical spending
from private insurance firms, would likely give Canadians better value,
they said.
Law said when he started to see the findings, small business owners
expressed frustrations to him about how their costs generally rose one
or two per cent every year, benefits were going up five to 15 per cent
every year.
When Jeff Chatterton of Kitchener, Ont., looked into health insurance
coverage for his family, he decided the expense wasn’t worth it for
himself, his wife and sons, aged four and six.
“We were around $200 a month, and $2,400 buys a whole lot of dental care
and orthotics,” in a year, said Chatterton, owner of Checkmate Public
Affairs, which specializes in crisis communications for the travel and
tourism industry.
"The math didn't just not make sense. It didn't make any sense."
Chatterton said he'd like to have health insurance and he'd reconsider
if the price went down or his family's needs change.
The researchers analyzed 20 years of reports from the Canadian Life and
Health Insurance Association and adjusted for inflation.
The association said without private insurance coverage, pressures on
scarce public resources would be greater.
The group called the study "misleading." In an email, a spokeswoman for
the industry group said the researchers did not include data from the
not-for-profit sector. As well, the group said that including income
replacement benefits, such as disability and critical illness insurance
that are not health-care expenses, "further skews the data."
Law countered that he wanted to look at for-profit insurance only for an
apples-to-apples comparison. He said the association itself groups data
such as critical illness insurance as related to health.
The research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Law has consulted for Health Canada on unrelated pharmaceutical policy
research.