Saturday, April 22, 2006
It's Working So Well With Insurance Checks
Apparently, it's not enough for finance companies to earn extra interest by holding onto homeowners' insurance checks. Now they want to be able to do the same thing with recovery authority buyout checks. From today's Picayune:
It's too soon to say whether that's the beginning of a serious push, but I expect to hear all about how Louisiana needs to prove that it's no longer anti-business. Wouldn't even be surprised to hear that no companies will be wlling to write mortgages in La., etc.
When I wrote more on the LRA health plan later, earlier this week, I had in mind an interesting, even important, post that would virtually write itself. That feeling quickly gave way to the "OMG, it's midnight, my term paper's due at eight in the morning, and I haven't even done any research yet" feeling.
I still think that astonishment is the correct response to reading:
At least, I found it astonishing to find out that Louisiana's private hospitals suffer because they don't get enough uninsured patients. That certainly seems to contradict everything I've heard about both public and private hospitals being overwhelmed by the costs of dealing with the growing number of uninsured patients.
Alas, that easy to write, clever (well, sarcastic) and possibly even important post never materialized. It's definitely an important subject, but disproportionate share financing is a complicated part of a much bigger problem, with quite a bit of money (pdf. for La. see p.12) involved. Hate to cop out again, but more on this later.
Among other critics, the Housing Policy Council of the Financial Services Roundtable, a banking group, has recommended using insurance payments as a model for checks given to homeowners for rebuilding. This would mean making the checks payable to the lender and homeowner, to ensure that they are used for repairs or to repay mortgage debt.
It's too soon to say whether that's the beginning of a serious push, but I expect to hear all about how Louisiana needs to prove that it's no longer anti-business. Wouldn't even be surprised to hear that no companies will be wlling to write mortgages in La., etc.
When I wrote more on the LRA health plan later, earlier this week, I had in mind an interesting, even important, post that would virtually write itself. That feeling quickly gave way to the "OMG, it's midnight, my term paper's due at eight in the morning, and I haven't even done any research yet" feeling.
I still think that astonishment is the correct response to reading:
Louisiana has the nation's only statewide system of public hospitals, and is also unique in how it pays for health-care services to the poor and uninsured. In other states the burden of caring for the uninsured is shared among the private and public hospitals, and federal dollars that reimburse hospitals for uncompensated care to the uninsured are spread out as well.
In Louisiana, the charity system gets virtually all of the federal "disproportionate share" dollars that compensate hospitals for the free care they provide for the uninsured
At least, I found it astonishing to find out that Louisiana's private hospitals suffer because they don't get enough uninsured patients. That certainly seems to contradict everything I've heard about both public and private hospitals being overwhelmed by the costs of dealing with the growing number of uninsured patients.
Alas, that easy to write, clever (well, sarcastic) and possibly even important post never materialized. It's definitely an important subject, but disproportionate share financing is a complicated part of a much bigger problem, with quite a bit of money (pdf. for La. see p.12) involved. Hate to cop out again, but more on this later.
