When the President of the Medical Society of New Jersey takes time to submit a carefully crafted letter to the editor, we need to read it. When Dr. Raj Gupta, the Society’s head, goes on to write in the Courier News that New Jersey’s citizens are about to be ripped off by the terms of Horizon’s proposal to go ‘for-profit,’ we had better listen closely.
The purpose of an insurer like Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is to provide the funds to cover the health-care needs of its premium-paying members. Its obligation is to do that as thoroughly and as effectively as possible, while maintaining reserves sufficient to meet that goal. It is not a business; nor is it a welfare institution. It is an organization whose purpose is to meet the needs of its members. Other objectives, though they may be noble, are not within its purview.
But, because the delivery of health-care is so unequal and so fractured, Horizon’s management currently sees an opening to change the purpose and vision of Horizon’s charter. That perceived opening is the combination of New Jersey’s current fiscal mess and its salivating Trenton politicians who may be ready to grasp at any straw to gain any advantage, however temporary, to infuse cash into the system.
As Dr. Gupta points out in his letter, the measly one billion dollars that would accrue to New Jersey citizens comes down to an equivalent, one-time payment of about $588 for every uninsured person in this state: In other words – peanuts. But, as Dr. Gupta points out, the windfall for top Horizon executives could be in the millions: That, of course, is the real purpose and motivating force behind making Horizon a publicly-traded corporation.
Look, I’m just as conservative and as profit-minded as many others in the Garden State. But the Horizon proposal is not about providing uninsured New Jerseyans better health-care. It’s about stuffing the pockets of executives who either don’t know or don’t care about what the purpose of their organization is all about.
Non-existent government oversight and management malfeasance within the financial industry have caused the collapse of a once-thriving real estate market. We don’t need to see a mini repetition of that in New Jersey in the form of an ill-advised initial public offering of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield stock. (And, by the way, which Wall Street investment firm is Horizon working with to craft this misguided health-care boondoggle?)
Dr. Raj Gupta’s letter-to-the editor is a splendid piece and well-deserving of your reading time. You can find it at http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080825/OPINION04/808250308/1063. Don’t miss it. Thanks for your patient reading. Have a good end-of-summer.
Showing posts with label Health Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health Care. Show all posts
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Hope for Muhlenberg
The lead headline and front-page story in Sunday’s print edition of the Courier News reads, “Muhlenberg backers ready to rally.” For weeks now, I’ve been reading about how the Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center is planning to close its 396-bed acute-care facility, leaving several other operations in place.
Blogger Herb Kaufman (http://cnplainfield.blogspot.com/) has had passionate posts on the topic, and the C-N has covered the matter extensively with news reports, as well as on its editorial page.
In a complex issue such as this one, there is often one person who crystallizes the issue in cogent terms, with a clarity that cannot be ignored. This time, it’s the words of Dr. Brian Fertig, a doctor associated with both Muhlenberg and its sister hospital in the Solaris Health System, the JFK Medical Center.
Quoted in the C-N, Fertig asks, “How does this happen with all the wealth in New Jersey?” Fertig’s question cuts right through to a key factor in this equation and, when he answers his own question, “This should not have happened,” he confronts us with a very uncomfortable conclusion.
It becomes rather clear – at least to me – that the health care needs of a community the size of Plainfield cannot be ignored (the 2006 census counted 47,353 people, compared to Bridgewater which came in at 44,818, and which has a nearby hospital in Somerville). Plainfield’s loss of a 396-bed facility would be a major blow. Fertig’s plaintive words need to be heard over and over again. I am not so naïve as to think that the state of New Jersey can simply write a check for Muhlenberg’s operating deficit, or that the parent company, Solaris, can indefinitely continue to absorb financial losses from Muhlenberg.
But there is something very much out-of-kilter when we U.S. citizens can observe the government in Washington spending billions of dollars for a mismanaged war with Iraq, while a local community in New Jersey is expected to lose a major health facility to the detriment of its own citizens. My mom was fond of saying, “Charity begins at home.”
Note: 1. For Sunday’s April 27, 2008, report on Muhlenberg and Shaun O’Hara’s involvement (he’s the center for the New York Giants), see http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS/804270385. The web site of the Solaris Health System is at http://www.solarishs.org/. 2. Although I have not analyzed any of the data associated with Muhlenberg’s predicament, I was once involved with a major business assessment of the health industry at a time when the firm which employed me was evaluating entry into this market segment.
Blogger Herb Kaufman (http://cnplainfield.blogspot.com/) has had passionate posts on the topic, and the C-N has covered the matter extensively with news reports, as well as on its editorial page.
In a complex issue such as this one, there is often one person who crystallizes the issue in cogent terms, with a clarity that cannot be ignored. This time, it’s the words of Dr. Brian Fertig, a doctor associated with both Muhlenberg and its sister hospital in the Solaris Health System, the JFK Medical Center.
Quoted in the C-N, Fertig asks, “How does this happen with all the wealth in New Jersey?” Fertig’s question cuts right through to a key factor in this equation and, when he answers his own question, “This should not have happened,” he confronts us with a very uncomfortable conclusion.
It becomes rather clear – at least to me – that the health care needs of a community the size of Plainfield cannot be ignored (the 2006 census counted 47,353 people, compared to Bridgewater which came in at 44,818, and which has a nearby hospital in Somerville). Plainfield’s loss of a 396-bed facility would be a major blow. Fertig’s plaintive words need to be heard over and over again. I am not so naïve as to think that the state of New Jersey can simply write a check for Muhlenberg’s operating deficit, or that the parent company, Solaris, can indefinitely continue to absorb financial losses from Muhlenberg.
But there is something very much out-of-kilter when we U.S. citizens can observe the government in Washington spending billions of dollars for a mismanaged war with Iraq, while a local community in New Jersey is expected to lose a major health facility to the detriment of its own citizens. My mom was fond of saying, “Charity begins at home.”
Note: 1. For Sunday’s April 27, 2008, report on Muhlenberg and Shaun O’Hara’s involvement (he’s the center for the New York Giants), see http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS/804270385. The web site of the Solaris Health System is at http://www.solarishs.org/. 2. Although I have not analyzed any of the data associated with Muhlenberg’s predicament, I was once involved with a major business assessment of the health industry at a time when the firm which employed me was evaluating entry into this market segment.
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