One of the tools of businesses is to study the "value chain" of their work processes, products and services to determine where value is added or lost and what steps can be taken to enhance value and hence profits. For example, automobile manufacturers may decide it is cheaper to outsource many of their component parts to suppliers, as car manufacturers have done to their various parts, particularly electronics such as radios, GPS systems, or yes even accelerator pedals. The value chain also includes effective marketing of a brand and creating a perception amongst consumers of quality and/or value. The pharmaceutical industry is an example where heavy marketing adds value to the sale of prescription drugs; hence the multitude of "ask your doctor" ads on TV.
Applying the value chain concept to the healthcare insurance industry, one doesn't have to be an MBA to understand that value is enhanced to the business by ensuring healthy people and rejecting the unhealthy. But how do you separate out the healthy from the unhealthy? It's simple. First you get the government to take care of those more prone to be sick...hence Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the chronically sick. That removes them from having to invoke "death panels" for a large part of the population.
Secondly, for ethically rejecting those "unhealthy" that don't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid you engage in marketing, but not in the way pharmaceutical companies market. The main target of the health insurance company marketers is not the populace but rather the regulators, and more specifically Congress. The Center for Public Integrity reports that there are eight lobbyists for every member of Congress that engage in "marketing" against or influencing healthcare legislation reform...including most insurance companies against any legislation that might regulate their monopolistic practices.
Another aspect of marketing is controlling the message including "anti-branding". While falsely extolling the virtues of their industry with some oft repeated slogans like, "Americans have the best health care system in the world", they also engage in effective marketing to tear down "the alternative" using words that resonate with the populace such as "government takeover of your healthcare" or equating government sponsored or regulated healthcare with "socialism." The corporate media and especially Fox News is a partner in this aspect of the marketing campaign.
In evaluating the value chain of healthcare in general and not just the insurance industry, few in Congress and our citizens have asked the most important question: "What value indeed do the healthcare insurance companies add to our general health." And the answer is next to nothing. They are a middleman that gets rich by taking the biggest cut of the action and adding little. Those that believe that basic healthcare is a privilege rather than a right will always come down on the side of the insurance companies, and that healthcare insurance is a business for profit. It is indeed a very profitable business and the Republicans always support it.
Schmidt Wrote: In evaluating the value chain of healthcare in general and not just the insurance industry, few in Congress and our citizens have asked the most important question: "What value indeed do the healthcare insurance companies add to our general health." And the answer is next to nothing. They are a middleman that gets rich by taking the biggest cut of the action and adding little. Those that believe that basic healthcare is a privilege rather than a right will always come down on the side of the insurance companies, and that healthcare insurance is a business for profit. It is indeed a very profitable business and the Republicans always support it.
Schmidt Wrote: One of the tools of businesses is to study the "value chain" of their work processes, products and services to determine where value is added or lost and what steps can be taken to enhance value and hence profits. For example, automobile manufacturers may decide it is cheaper to outsource many of their component parts to suppliers, as car manufacturers have done to their various parts, particularly electronics such as radios, GPS systems, or yes even accelerator pedals. The value chain also includes effective marketing of a brand and creating a perception amongst consumers of quality and/or value. The pharmaceutical industry is an example where heavy marketing adds value to the sale of prescription drugs; hence the multitude of "ask your doctor" ads on TV. Applying the value chain concept to the healthcare insurance industry, one doesn't have to be an MBA to understand that value is enhanced to the business by ensuring healthy people and rejecting the unhealthy. But how do you separate out the healthy from the unhealthy? It's simple. First you get the government to take care of those more prone to be sick...hence Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the chronically sick. That removes them from having to invoke "death panels" for a large part of the population. Secondly, for ethically rejecting those "unhealthy" that don't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid you engage in marketing, but not in the way pharmaceutical companies market. The main target of the health insurance company marketers is not the populace but rather the regulators, and more specifically Congress. The Center for Public Integrity reports that there are eight lobbyists for every member of Congress that engage in "marketing" against or influencing healthcare legislation reform...including most insurance companies against any legislation that might regulate their monopolistic practices. Another aspect of marketing is controlling the message including "anti-branding". While falsely extolling the virtues of their industry with some oft repeated slogans like, "Americans have the best health care system in the world", they also engage in effective marketing to tear down "the alternative" using words that resonate with the populace such as "government takeover of your healthcare" or equating government sponsored or regulated healthcare with "socialism." The corporate media and especially Fox News is a partner in this aspect of the marketing campaign. In evaluating the value chain of healthcare in general and not just the insurance industry, few in Congress and our citizens have asked the most important question: "What value indeed do the healthcare insurance companies add to our general health." And the answer is next to nothing. They are a middleman that gets rich by taking the biggest cut of the action and adding little. Those that believe that basic healthcare is a privilege rather than a right will always come down on the side of the insurance companies, and that healthcare insurance is a business for profit. It is indeed a very profitable business and the Republicans always support it.