|
SCAMS REVISITED Health insurance costs spur a new proliferation of bogus insurance companies with the usual impressive-sounding names, typically constructed to sound a lot like established carriers. Some even pay a few claims for awhile to really set the hook, operate for months or more before anyone catches on. Healthcare reform . . . Yes, this truly belongs under the Scams category. The government will do with this what they did with Medicare, the post office, etc. The Oracle is going to try really, really hard not to get sick. If you have a medical procedure pending, get it done before 2013-14. Why? Because the day Obamacare begins full implementation is the day our healthcare system begins its rapid transformation into something much like that of the British. That is to say everyone will have medical insurance, and relatively few will actually be able to obtain medical treatment, certainly not as we have come to expect it. The "Public Servants" (Politicians & public union members) will continue to have considerable advantage cost-wise, but to their shock will find themselves competing with the unwashed masses for the attention of a dwindling pool of medical providers. (Many of whom will accelerate their retirement or withdrawal to coincide with implementation.) The healthcare field lost 30,000 - yes that's 30,000 jobs in August of last year. This is only the beginning. The elites (including the powerful politicians & the very wealthy) will be treated in "Concierge" type arrangements, or travel outside the U.S. to providers who will leave the US system for locales that allow value pricing. (Think Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Carribean Islands etc.) The actual operating regulations for this massive economic transformation have not even been established yet, and the fraudsters and con artists are licking their chops. The level of fraud is sure to make the Medicare and Medi-Cal fraud numbers look like child's play. Also remember medical care shares certain inescapable characteristics with other commodities in that a blackmarket inevitably springs up when the supply and or price is fixed by the state.
WORKERS' COMP: THE PENDULUM SWINGS (AGAIN) California reforms instituted under Gov who's-your-daddy tilted disability rules & ratings rather heavily in favor of the carriers. Now the rules have been largely tilted back to the other side. This accounts for the almost constantly changing market and rates for comp.
WHAT THE LOONEY US LEGAL SYSTEM COSTS Recent study by a consulting unit of Towers Perrin puts the cost of our tort system at $260 Billion - yes, that's Billion, projected to soon rise to $315 Billion. This of course does not include the unknown other costs of products not made, medical costs imposed by doctors & others covering their glutius maximi, people not getting hired, etc. |