The high cost of health care isn’t just negatively impacting household budgets, says Greater New Orleans Inc. President and CEO Michael Hecht, it’s also hindering economic development efforts in Louisiana.
“Personnel benefits costs are the second largest expense for businesses. Our state is one of the worst in the nation when it comes to these costs,” says Hecht, who was among a number business and health care leaders who gathered in New Orleans last week to discuss health care reform, in a prepared statement. “For us in Louisiana, it’s not just an issue of doing what’s right for our employees, but of also ensuring that our state remains a great place to do business.”
A business considering a location in Louisiana could save 35% in health care spending by choosing to do business in Southwestern cities such as Phoenix, Hecht says.
“Where would you put your business?” he asks. “This issue is going to hit us in the pocketbooks as Louisianans.”
The Business Forum, hosted by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and GNO Inc., also examined how rising health care costs are impacting individuals.
“For a family of four with an income of $100,000 annually, the out-of-pocket cost for healthcare is about 33 percent of their gross income,” says Dr. I. Steven Udvarhelyi, CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana. “These costs are preventing people from seeking care. On a statewide level, Louisiana has six of the ten most expensive hospital systems in the country.”
Access is also a major area of concern that needs to be addressed, says Udvarhelyi, noting the current system largely doesn’t provide access outside of standard business hours or on weekends. On top of that, he says, there is also a lack of primary care physicians.
“The U.S has half the number of primary care physicians as Sweden and only one-fifth the number of France,” he says. “The delivery system is not there for people to get care, which accentuates the access problem.”
Udvarhelyi says there’s a need for the U.S. health care system to shift from a payment model that compensates medical providers for treating sick patients to one that rewards them for patients who are successfully managing chronic conditions.
“The system currently rewards hospitals and physicians for doing more, not doing better,” he says. “We are increasing volume, but we’re not producing better outcomes.”
Louisiana Secretary of Health Dr. Rebekah Gee also provided updated enrollment numbers for Louisiana’s expanded Medicaid program at the forum.
“In just four months, we’ve enrolled 326,000 people who did not have health insurance,” she says. “Over 24,000 adults received preventative care; over 2,000 women received mammograms and over 1,500 patients have received a colonoscopy.”
Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplace opened Tuesday. Premiums for ACA plans have increased an average of 22% for 2017.
