Louisiana is extending Medicaid coverage this month to about 400,000 people with incomes below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level, or FPL (that’s about $16,400 a year for a single person or around $33,400 for a family of four). For most folks, this Medicaid coverage will take effect July 1, 2016, which is just a few weeks away.
It’s a beautiful day for fishing, and my old friend Ken (a very successful engineer in his mid-50s who just finished absorbing the cost of putting his two kids through college) and I are taking advantage of it. We usually talk shop a bit because we don’t see each other very often. This time, the conversation turns to insurance. Ken drops a pretty cast, turns to me and opens with this shot across my bow:
Editor’s Note: This is the second part of our interview with interim Blue Cross Medical Director Dr. Paul Murphree.
There is no doubt that the advancement of medical technology is a very expensive business. Research into new drugs by the 10 biggest drug companies in 2013, for example, exceeded $66 billion in brand-new spending. That’s a whole lot of money that their investors and shareholders are willing to risk for the NEXT big drug. And this level of investment has actually been growing for about 20 years straight — even more so lately, as global capital is chasing its way into the United States looking for a strong return. A really strong target for this capital is the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.
“As I look back over my life, I realize a few things about a lifetime of being overweight.”
Since 2009, I’ve given more than 800 presentations in Louisiana alone on healthcare reform and cost trends. Almost all of these were to business audiences, whose benefit offerings have been drastically affected by healthcare reform.
