Health Care Super-Consumers

Some healthcare consumers are in and out of the ER constantly

In the healthcare industry there is a term for patients who consume exceedingly high health care dollars: health care super-consumers.

It turns out that these super-consumers, who represent 5% of all domestic health care consumers, consume 50% of the total health care dollars.

I need to repeat that: 5% of consumers of health care services demand 50% of all health care dollars.

No wonder, when Obamacare demanded that health insurance providers cover all consumers regardless of prior health conditions, premiums for the rest of us started going through the roof and insurance companies started leaving the marketplace.

Prior to Obamacare, these patients were either not covered by any plan or were covered by Medicaid. After Obamacare, they were able to join the ranks of the insured, resulting in an explosion in claims costs for the insurance companies.

This is why the federal government, or the state governments with or without federal funding, need to insure these super-consumers and get them off the rolls of the health insurance companies.

The way the system is now, at least 50% of the typical consumer's health care insurance premiums go to fund the needs of only 5% of the population. It is fundamentally unfair to ask that of the average U.S. family.

As a nation, particularly a nation as powerful as the United States, has a moral obligation to provide for the health care needs of its populace. However, charging exorbitant insurance premiums with ridiculously high deductibles is not an answer.

If the insurance companies go back to the model where they can red line certain consumers based on pre-existing health conditions, thereby pushing them into a federal or state plan, the majority of the population can go back to health care plans with low premiums and low deductibles.

God knows the status quo is not working anymore.