After 20 Years Working for Louisiana Blue: Why I STILL Love My Job

I recently celebrated the 20^th anniversary of my first day at Louisiana Blue. And I remain, after all these years, 100% sold on the notion that the best way to pay for a person’s healthcare is by creating entities like us and giving them the freedom to make local decisions and manage­­ our healthcare funds here in Louisiana.

It’s now been 40 years since I finished my treatment for a very nasty bone cancer that threatened my life. I always joke if I th­­ought I was going to live this long I’d have taken better ca­­re of myself! I’m also 38 years into a marriage with a very patient registered nurse, and my 63^rd birthday is right around the corner. I’ve lived in Louisiana for every one of those years. If you follow me on social media (X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram – @MikeBertaut), you’ll see the moniker “Louisiana Defender.” And I try to live that every single day.

Whew! Talk about milestones! People often ask me if I’m thinking about retirement. Nope, I say, too much left to do here!

So, what keeps my motor running? I still constantly think about healthcare costs and spending (and not just because I’m a healthcare economist). I scan for threats to your health insurance, especially affordability threats that offer little in value, so we can address these changes head-on. This does keep me up at night, but in a good way. I ruminate on the best ways to help people stay in good health. And, at the same time, how to pay for it all and keep Louisianians, your local Blue Plan and our state solvent.

When I stand in my driveway and visit with my neighbors, or celebrate special events with my 60+ cousins, aunts and uncles, one thought keeps popping into my head: These folks who I care about VERY much, at some point in their lives, will need a LOT more healthcare than they can afford.

What’s an average hospital stay cost nowadays? Four days = $14,000! How about a course of oral chemotherapy drugs to correct cancer? $70,000 a month is not unheard of. Drugs to combat Hepatitis C? $40,000 or so. Even arthritis injections can easily hit $7,500/month. What about diabetes management? That averages $12,000/year in additional costs. And I ask myself, “Do any of the people I care about have that kind of money parked in a bank account, just waiting for them to get sick?”

I feel safe saying almost none of them do. For all of us, if someone else doesn’t have money ready to take care of us when we get sick, we’re in big financial trouble. Why?

Staggeringly Big Healthcare System

At an event I was blessed to attend in 2017, one of my economist heroes, the late Dr. Walter Williams, said this:

“In the United States we have managed to build a world-class, technologically advanced healthcare system that spreads new drugs and treatments all over the planet and subsidizes healthcare all over the world. Sadly, we’ve built it in such a way that NOBODY can afford to use it out of their own pocket!” 

Our healthcare system in the United States consumes world-changing amounts of money. In a recent estimate, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimated the United States, with a total economic output of roughly $27 trillion, managed to spend almost 18% of it (that’s about $4.9 trillion) on healthcare alone in 2023. So, for every $1 the United States produces in value, 18 cents of it goes to healthcare. That’s a lot. We only spend about 6 cents of that dollar on education, by the way.

So healthcare is obviously something we, as Americans, place a VERY high value upon. As Dr. Williams mentioned, we’ve built a healthcare system so expensive that we are entirely dependent on other entities — let’s call them “third-party payers” — so we can have access to healthcare when we really need it. And the question becomes, whom do you trust to aggregate that money on your behalf? Which is the best third-party payer for you?

Louisiana Blue is my favorite one. It’s all about structure and motivation.

Louisiana Blue Is a Local Company, Without Shareholders

Louisiana Blue is a locally based, not-for-profit but tax-paying company. This means there are no “invisible” stock owners or bond owners from far away, skimming a few percentage points of profit from the fund or driving management to make decisions that are better for investors than for members. No Wall Street types are involved in our decision cycles. As a member, you can rest assured that as much as the government will allow, such authority stays here.

If our Board of Directors, which is composed entirely of Louisiana residents and Louisiana Blue members who come from many different walks of life, wants to make a decision, they don’t have to consult with anyone from New York or Los Angeles. They can make a Louisiana decision, for Louisiana people, for Louisiana reasons. Everybody in the process works and invests here.

What’s It Like to Work for Louisiana Blue for 20 Years?

Imagine if you lived your whole day SURROUNDED by your customers. We do, because more than one out of every three Louisianians, the people we see day in and day out, has a Louisiana Blue card in their pocket.

How would that affect YOUR decision making, knowing that every step you make affects the lives of at least one out of every three people you meet every day?

Imagine being me: Wherever I go, whether to church, or grocery store, or the doctor’s office, or traveling to give a speech for work, I’m surrounded by people who depend on Louisana Blue to be there when they get sick.  And a whole bunch of them know by now that I work for the Louisiana Blue Plan. Imagine how that affects my decision making.

The Straight Talk is YOU are on all our minds every single day, and you can bet we act accordingly. I love knowing that we have the mission to improve the health and lives of our friends and neighbors. I am proud that so many people, government agencies and companies trust us to do this for them. I enjoy the fact that we are led by Louisianians every step of the way. Through hurricanes, floods and pandemics, I couldn’t be prouder of the actions and response of our organization in putting Louisiana FIRST.