Author: Michael Bertaut

Healthcare Economist Michael Bertaut (BURR-toe) is a Certified Health Consultant and Professional of the Academy of Healthcare Management. He has more than 30 years of analytical experience in the healthcare, telecom and retail industry sectors. On the ground in D.C. when the healthcare reform law (PPACA) was written, Michael has taken part in more than 1,100 public discussions on healthcare costs and the impact of reform since 2009. Mike is a fellow of the Academy of Applied Politics at Louisiana State University, and author of this Hermes Award winning healthcare blog. Michael earned his MBA and BA from Louisiana State University and just celebrated his 35th year as a cancer survivor. Michael is recognized as a national commentator on healthcare reform, quoted in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and state and local publications. He is a regular guest on the Talk Louisiana radio show.

Note from Mike: I’m sifting through the information coming out about the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare and healthcare in a Trump presidency. I’ll be back soon to offer my take on it, but in the meantime, see this Q&A on what Blue Cross is doing right now.

In my last blog post, I gave details about how much rates for individual customers’ health insurance are going up next year and why. I promised do a future blog about not just how much premiums cost, but how much financial protection the federally-designed products for 2017 give the average customer. This may get a bit wonky, so please bear with me as you go through.

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Today, 50 years after it was signed into law, what we call “Medicare” may be the most misunderstood program the government has. Since the annual “Open Enrollment” for the Medicare Advantage (MA) market just began, I thought this was a great time to review a few things about Medicare.

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One thing I’ve learned after 55 years on this planet is that we all walk around every day with biases that color our decision making. Some of these biases can be safety-related (“I really don’t want that wild snake in my home, even though I can’t tell a poisonous one from a safe one!”) or designed to support sensible decision making (“I probably won’t give Jim any more work, since he keeps getting caught stealing from the company!”) or even beneficial to society (“Sure, I could dump these excess chemicals into that river with no idea what impact they would have on the environment, but it just feels wrong!”).

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In this blog, we spend a lot of time talking about the individual market (people who buy their own health insurance coverage and aren’t covered through an employer or government program.)

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I’m having a really bad dream, but I’m wide awake! You know the one I mean? Where you are in an impossible situation, you see something really bad about to happen, and there is nothing you can do about it? And you just have to watch the horrible event unfold, unable to change or alter it? Worst dream ever.

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