A Dirty Little Secret

Year after year, the cost of medical care keeps rising, ever faster than anything else – even gasoline over the longer run.

Why? Rich doctors? Nurses on easy street? Perhaps it’s unnecessary tests – a lot of folks say that. Is it that we’re paying the cost for the rest of the world for pharmaceutical research? That’s certainly an argument for which one can find some support. Much of the hot air around the topic boils down to “we have the best system – of course it costs more,” and that contributes to a solution, it makes no difference whose – Obama’s, Hillery’s, or even Romney’s – that boils down to mandatory health insurance for all. In other words, "everything thing’s fine, just make sure everyone’s insured."

But is that right? Let me tell you about what looks like a dirty little secret to me.

Having been given an artificial heart valve in 2004 (no complaints about that care, by the way) I regularly have a blood test called a “Protime.” Basically, rate of clotting. PrimeCare, the lab associated with my general practitioner, billed my insurance, and later, me, $43. The breakdown on that was $23 for the test and $20 for taking by blood.

On he advice of a doctor, we – Jeannie and I – switched to Sanford Medical (yes, that Stanford) Labs. The cost there? $15 ($7 test, $8 taking blood). Enough of a difference? Sure. But that’s not the whole story. It turns out if Stanford were billing my insurance – or me – the cost would be $36 ($21 test, $15 draw), close to the PrimeCare number. The $21 difference? The cost of supporting the health car administrative structure, including, mostly, bloated insurance company costs (and perhaps margins?). The cost for supporting all that seems to be 140% of the real cost of the care.

So is our Protime test unrepresentative? It sure isn’t. Many of you (hopefully) get tested for cholesterol. That’s called a Lipid Panel. I had that today. Cost? $24. Also a metabolic C. $19.00. One charge for drawing all three, the same $8. Go ahead, ask your lab what your costs are. (Your doctor will likely not know.)

It looks to me like most of the money I’m paying is for the insurance industries’ ridiculous overhead. And we rail against oil companies?

Do I have a solution? I’ve been accused that I often don’t. I don’t here, either, but that demand is what sends us off to debate baloney – just as the politicians are doing. They all agree that the health insurance industry should remain untouched in the solution. Why is that? The health care lobby has them all by the short hairs? (I can’t say “balls,” can I?) If so, that includes Barack Obama. So much for “change.”

Lie de Jour

Commitments to books – two are complete, one is on an early February deadline – have meant little attention to this personal blog.

I’ve been thinking. I keep seeing and hearing things that are just absolutely wrong. It drives me crazy, and that’s a particular problem in a presidential election year.

They’re frauds. Some big, some small. Lies. Some big, some small.

So, I think I’ll launch a “Lie de Jour.” I’m not going to argue at length – if you believe some of this crap, well, you’ll probably just keep believing it.

And don’t take that “de Jour” thing literally. Here’s the first.

Yesterday, the New York Times trumpeted, with photos and with about the front page territory they gave to 9-11, Iraq Vets Charged with 121 Murders.

Fine, but do the numbers. That’s about the same proportion as the general population, and one fifth - yes 20% - of the homicide rate for the demographic most similar to Iraq vets - males 18-34. It’s “front page stuff” why?

A sidebar says Iraq Vets at fault in 25 traffic accident deaths. That’s also way less than the expected incidence in a similar population. What makes that rate a story?

Has the great paper run out of “...news that’s fit to print?” Has its research failed? Math challenged? An agenda? Or perhaps they’re just plain stupid.

There’s the lie – or stupidity – of the day.

Voting and Bowling

But, Will it do any Good?

New Hampshire votes tomorrow. Obama and McCain seem to be leading. Could we really get two pretty attractive candidates? That’ll seem like the millennium. It seems too soon, but here we are, like it or not, already deep into another national election. Those two make me hopeful...but then I realize that in the end they’ll just have to deal with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Bowling with the Bear

Murphy and I are going to settle in for the football game this evening. We’re ready to cook up a half dozen of the Bear’s Buffalo Wings (I don't need any more weight here, so that’ll be enough.)

Will the 2008 Allstate BCS National Championship Game from New Orleans’ Superdome be worth watching. Probably. There are plenty of story lines here. The good stuff includes Ohio State’s defense and LSU’s offense. On the list of the not-so-good there’s a suspect LSU defense and an anemic Ohio State offense.

Then there’s Ohio State’s odds-defying bowling record against the South Eastern Conference. Zero, zip, nada...and eight. My Suthren friends are fond of quoting such things. In that regard it’s too bad it’s not Michigan out there, they’re a pretty good 7-3 bowling against the same conference, and an impressive 23-5-1 in regular season games.