April 10, 2007
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Patriot Response to Blues Surplus

Dear Editor:

My response to your April 4th editorial question, "Should the Blues" huge reserves provide coverage for uninsured?" is a resounding "NO."  Any excess money – whether it is large amount or a small one – does not belong to either government or to insurers.  Rather, it belongs to employers who pay the health care bills and to their employees for health care benefits.

Although you make an excellent point that the Community Health Reinvestment agreement between the Rendell Administration and the Blues was arrived at under a cloak of secrecy without any hearings or participation by the Legislature or public, this is not the focal point of this important issue.  Employers pay around $17 billion a year for commercial health insurance.  Each one percent increase costs about $170 million more, and employers have seen double digit increases for many years.

There are three key components when talking about health care:  access, quality, and cost.  Governor Rendell says that he is interested in reducing the cost of health care.  However, his plan mainly focuses on access and is a step toward socialized medicine.  If we go down this road, both cost and quality will suffer even more.

Whether you believe that the Blues' surplus is between $3.9 billion or $6.2 billion, as opined by your editorial, should not be the focus.  If there are any Blues' surpluses, they should be returned to the rate payers – the same principle as my Taxpayer Protection Act, which would require that excess tax money (as determined by a combination of annual inflation and population growth) should be returned to taxpayers.

Returning the $960 million as required by the Community Health agreement would have gone a long way in reducing the costs of health insurance.  That use of rate payers' money should not have been allowed then and should not be repeated now.  Rather, we should be seeking high-quality, affordable healthcare for all Pennsylvanians.

                                                            Sincerely,

                                                            Mike Folmer