CanuckCare & Medical Tourism, Revisited

We've been blogging about the propensity for many of our Neighbors to the North to come south of the border to receive actual health care, such as in this post from over 6 years ago:

"Canadian Premier Danny Williams has chosen to circumvent the obviously superior (and free!) Canadian health care system, by flying to the United States for heart surgery, which is widely and freely available in his home country."

Previously, other powerful Canadians, such as MP Belinda Stronach had also chosen to have care rendered here.

Now FoIB Holly R helpfully alerts us to this factoid:

"An estimated 52,000 Canadians left the country to receive non-emergency health care in 2014"

Reason I bring this up is that recently, one of the two major party Presidential candidates averred that many Canadians come here for care that is supposedly widely and quickly available in their own country. Now, it's true that there have been recent attempts to privatize at least some sectors of the Canadian boondoggle health care system, with mixed results. But the fact remains that such care is unavailable to the majority of Canadians, and the sad truth is that the implosion of our own system impacts them, as well.

Just an observation.

Captain Obvious Speaks

"[I]t’s pretty clear that premiums for health insurance plans sold on the marketplace will increase more in 2017 than they did in 2016."

You don't say.

[Hat Tip: FoIB Holly R]

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

I am raising money with my team, Love, Hope and Faith, who will walk on Saturday, October 15th in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Dayton,Ohio.

Will you help out by making a donation - any amount helps.

Thank you!!

MVNHS© Infighting: "Vultures" vs Rats

First up, the scavengers:

"Vulture lawyers bleed the NHS for £418m: Their sickening fees in one year are enough to hire 19,000 nurses"

As here, British barristers often append outsized fees to relatively modest awards. In some cases, they've been willing to (dramatically) reduce their "take," but only after being "forced to accept" the lower amount.

Meantime, those who actually provide the care that's under scrutiny are abandoning ship in droves:

"More than four out of 10 doctors are planning to practise medicine overseas and levels of workplace stress have risen across the profession"

Of course they are: under nationalized health care schemes such as the Much Vaunted National Health Service©, doc's are limited as to how much they can earn, and often forced to work longer hours. Why wouldn't they start looking elsewhere?

And of course, if they're going to end up being sued for the care they do provide, where exactly is the incentive to tough it out?

[Hat Tip: FoIB Hilly R]

Again: Where's the money?

Aetna has just announced that it doesn't want to write any more individual health insurance plans in over a dozen states:

"We will not offer commissions for 2017 individual plans in the following states: Arkansas, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming"

Notice that this isn't about on- or off-Exchange, it's all-inclusive (or exclusive, one supposes).

They join a non-exclusive club; co-blogger Bob tells us that Cigna won't be paying commissions on 2017 business (plans written beginning of next month for January 1 effective dates) in Illinois, California and North Carolina.

And FoIB Jeff M, reporting from North Carolina, tells us that Blue Cross won't pay commissions on business migrating to them from UHC, Aetna, or Coventry. He sagely observes that "the only way for an agent to make anything at all is to write business on someone who is currently uninsured."

That'll work out well.

Long Term Care: It's only money, right?

John Hancock, one of the largest Long Term Care insurance (LTCi) carriers, recently released its findings on which areas cost the most (and least) for actual care. The report's based on a survey of some 16,000 providers across the US of A to come up with community averages.

Here's a sampling of what they found:

1. Nursing home: Private room

Cheapest: Jefferson City, Missouri ($142 per day)

Most expensive: Juneau, Alaska ($600 per day)

4. Home health aide

Cheapest: Fort Lauderdale, Florida ($15 per hour)

Most expensive: Minneapolis ($31 per hour)

5. Adult day care

Cheapest: Montgomery, Alabama ($22 per day)

Most expensive: New York ($203 per day)

Be sure to click through to see the other key data points, including assisted living and shared room costs.

The lesson? Long term care's expensive, no matter how you slice it. Might be a good idea to shift some of that risk off to an insurance company.

Health Wonk Review is up...

Joe Paduda presents this week's star-studded, jam-packed Health Wonk Review, with a focus on the upcoming election.

Believe me, you don't want to miss it.