Category Archives: Health Care Economics
Companies hold health inflation to 2%
Tom Doney, an old hand in the health plan and network discount business, has 421 self-insured employer clients in 50 states that are proving health costs can be held to 2% annual increases. That track record for his Cypress health … Read the rest
Health care mergers demand antitrust oversight
Someone has to convince me that bigger is better in health care. The Big Five health insurers are flirting with mergers that could result in the Big Three. And health systems have aligned themselves with former competitors. In Wisconsin, that … Read the rest
A tale of two health plans, one far less costly
Compare and contrast the performance of Steinhafels Furniture and the State of Wisconsin in managing health costs. The Steinhafel family and Lynda Malmberg, senior human resources manager at the retail furniture and mattress chain, have applied serious management disciplines to … Read the rest
Walker shifts more health costs to business
The proposal by the Walker Administration to shift public employees to the health plans of employers in the private sector is petty lame. Gov. Walker has proposed a $2000-per year incentive to state employees to induce them to opt out … Read the rest
Missing in campaign: debate on health cost management
The campaign for governor has come and is almost gone, and both Gov. Walker and challenger Mary Burke have managed to largely avoid the biggest economic issue in the state: out-of-control health costs. They have debated mightily over how many … Read the rest
Six health systems could make Wisconsin more competitive
Even as political candidates for this fall’s elections duck health costs as a major issue, payers continue to demand better value and providers continue to reorganize for improved outcomes. Even Obamacare, with all its defects, all its supporters and fierce … Read the rest
Free UW chancellors to manage benefits
The faculty at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM) has received no general raises over the last five years, so it has become a target for poaching. The campus has lost 40 faculty members recently to competing institutions. Crippled … Read the rest
Why U.S. spends 17% of GDP on health care
A comparison of health costs between Europe, Canada and the U.S. by Sue Davis, chair of the political science department at Denison University, Granville, Ohio, surfaced a major insight on why other countries spend far less on care as a … Read the rest
Unconditional political warfare in Wisconsin
You learn early on in physics courses that for every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So it seems in politics in Wisconsin these days. Or from the arena of war and peace, we have learned that unconditional … Read the rest
Deflation ahead for health costs?
It looks like the innovations in health care delivery at Serigraph continue to produce results. The company is now running 35% below its peer group nationally. Costs for a full health care plan, including administration and drugs, came in at … Read the rest
