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Business, Free Enterprise and Constitutional Issues; Pro-Life and Pro Second Amendment. Susan Lynn is a member of the Tennessee General Assembly. She serves as Chairman of the Consumer and Human Resources subcommittee, a member of the Finance Ways and Means Committee and the Ethics Committee. She holds a BS in economics and a minor in history.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Tennessee Center for Policy Research on Claims Database

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research has issued a fascinating analysis of the All Payer Claims Database and issued their analysis for review.


State Wants to Collect Private Healthcare Data

"Costs to Consumers & Insurers – The legislation’s current fiscal note is less than $200,000 but this only takes the cost to the state government into account.

Furthermore, even the fiscal note is a gross under-estimate. In Minnesota, where similar legislation passed, the cost of the program exceeded $4 million in less than 4 years. Insurance companies are likely to incur great costs when forced to conform to an electronic form as prepared by the NCQA.

These costs are likely to be passed along, eventually, to consumers. Thus the stated goal of “improving…affordability of patient health care and health care coverage” is thwarted from the start."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Perfect. Obama's future OPTIONAL government plan will then attract people who are afraid of the same bureaucratic control ("costs likely to be passed along") that insurance companies ALREADY have done to their clients such as: routinely denying clients their choice of doctor and often refusing to pay for care as well as denying people basic coverage based on the dreadful "precondition." A public option cannot be worse than what the current Private US Health Care System has done for the US now, that is given the US a WHO Heath Care Delivery System ranking of #37 in the world.

Insurance Companies (such as Blue Cross Blue Shield) are already in the market for driving costs up like charging in their premiums for the possibility of needless services such as maternity care for males. What's so funny is that Republicans would rather live with this current system of delivery and tell people that the government can't do any better. Really? Why not give it a chance? Why not give the people a choice? Private or Public health care? Then I'd like to see the Insurance Companies pass along their so called "costs" to what will be left of their clients knowing there's a competitor out there.

For most part between 1995 and 2007, the Republicans controlled both Houses. Add W. to the mix in 2001 and tell me why not one Republican told the Health Insurance Companies to shape up or else...they didn't.

Democrats will. Led by Obama as he
promised
but more importantly probably designed by
Wyden
, who knows there's common ground to be found, I have faith that Congressional Democrats will force the Insurance Companies to play a different hand than the one they've played since at least 1995.