I'm undecided and taking input on the "any willing provider" initiative. Independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Myers obliges with commentary that matches a sentiment I've heard in my comment section: we need an "any willing provider" to challenge monopoly power in South Dakota health care.
I will, as an announced independent candidate for governor, 2014, without party affilication, sign the "Any Willing Provider" petition expected to be a South Dakota 2014 ballot measure. Why?
As a former CEO of Mayo-St. Mary's Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota; COO responsible for the merger of St. Joseph Mercy and St. Vincent hospitals, Sioux City, Iowa, and the merger of Fairview Riverside Medical Center and St. Mary's Hospital, Minneapolis, and having taught healthcare administration and healthcare law at the Schools of Law and Business at the University of South Dakota for 23 years:
- I know where the money comes from and where it goes.
- That as Plato told us: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
- That as President Theodore Roosevelt understood: concentrated market power corrupts and hence the need for anti-trust law enforcement.
- That South Dakota healthcare is in a state of market failure, subjecting South Dakotans to medical bankruptcy, overtreatment and unnecessary end-of-life treatment; and
- That both parties have become captives of corporate interests built through the lobbying power of the state's three major healthcare systems.
Presently three million-dollar health system CEOs, accompanied by their financial officers and legal counsel, can play a round of golf and emerge from a club house with an agreed-upon budget strategy that will impose unsustainable insurance premiums upon businesses, families, seniors and individuals.
The present system is unsustainable. Reform is needed. The "Any Willing Provider" measure is a good start [Mike Myers, press release, 2013.09.03].
"Any willing provider" as trust-buster—now there's an argument I can get into!
If Sanford can use its insurance arm to divert business away from their smaller health care competitors, that's a problem. But if the concentration of power is as bad as Myers says, we need bigger steps beyond AWP to solve it.
Cory - Mike will be our next guest on our 'Rant-a-bit' podcast in about a week. Should be interesting. Email me any questions you have for him.
Myers did all of us a big favor with his study of health insurance years ago.
He might want to check on the source of "Power corrupts..." however.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely.html
"I know where the money comes from and where it goes." Would make for some good theater (and much-needed publicity for an independent) if he can produce the bodies, and not all at once.
I like Mike! This Mike anyway. The ballot initiative should have significant populist appeal, and would be on the ballot at the right time to boost Myers's candidacy. I sure would like to see him make a serious run for Governor because he is a seriously capable guy with a great resume and experience. With a strong campaign organization behind him he could go all the way. He has to establish himself as more than just a single issue candidate though, but there is time for that.
I should have written: "Mike did us all a favor with his study of hospital charges in South Dakota."
It really doesn't make sense to me. These doctors seem to lack the ability to compete, and they want to find a way to not have to compete.
I agree that the big health insurers/medical complexes can jack up costs. That will be far less likely under Obamacare when if kicks in fully.
But if you don't like the big guys, start a cooperative. I have coverage through a health coop. The coop hires the doctors, and I vote for the board that runs both the insurance and the medical end of things. Hell, I could run for the board.
We don't pay our head guys as high as the big guys, and we have lower premiums, a wider spectrum of care and more transparency. We are considered the best health care plan in Wisconsin.
This initiative seems like just a bunch of sore loser doctors trying to backdoor themselves through to the big bucks. Why not do something innovative--start a cooperative to compete.