Healthcare Hullabaloo: Canary in a Coal Mine

Most of us have heard the phrase “Canary in a Coal Mine”. Maybe you’ve even heard the song by the Police. But what does it mean?

Back in the days before sophisticated electronic sensors, coal miners would often keep a caged canary with them. Coal mines were notorious for their hidden pockets of odorless lethal gas. Usually, by the time the miners realized that the gas was present, it would be too late to escape the mine before being overcome by the poison. As a defense, the miners would carry a caged canary into the mines with them. The sensitive respiratory system of the frail bird would cause it to keel over from the smallest trace of gas. The dead canary would signal the miners to make their escape long before they suffered any adverse affects from the gas.

One frustrating thing about writing this blog has been how many people comment that ‘they don’t see any problems’ with the ever-rising costs of health care. It occurred to me that these are people who generally receive their insurance through their employers and are therefore somewhat insulated from the health care crisis. Us poor schmucks who foot the bill for our own health insurance are like the proverbial canaries. Unfortunately, too many people have been ignoring the dead yellow birdies – until now.

Until recently, the state workers in New Jersey have been benefiting from a great health care plan through the New Jersey State Benefits program. This insurance, with an annual cost to the state of over $20,000 per individual only cost the state employee a measly 1.5% of their salary – a real bargain. Unfortunately, the governor has recently decreed that this type of expenditure by the State id no longer sustainable. He has announced – much to the chagrin of state employees – that he wants them to contribute 30% of the cost of the insurance. The state employee contribution for a mid level worker making 50 grand a year will skyrocket from around $60 a month to well over $500 a month.

As would be expected, the state workers are not happy with this new arrangement.

Welcome to my hell. What I wouldn’t give to pay $500 a month for my health insurance.

The sad fact is that it’s just a matter of economics – the State of New Jersey just can’t afford to keep on paying for these benefits under the current split. The state is making some compromises – including offering some lower cost (and lower coverage) plans to state workers.

By the way, this announcement is causing the executives at Horizon Blue Cross – who underwrote the former plan – to have a series of mini strokes over the new lower cost plans the state will be offering. So there is a bright side to this whole fiasco. Maybe the loss in revenues will force Horizon into grounding that freakin’ blimp that wastes 2 million of our health care dollars every year. I just hope and pray that Horizon CEO Marino will be able to maintain his pitiful 8 million dollar take home next year.

For those of you who work in the private sector, please don’t miss the message of this second round of dead canaries. Sooner or later (most likely sooner) you to will be affected by the ridiculous cost of health care. Corporate employees will be forced to deal with layoffs, increased employee contributions, lowered salaries, or a combination of these factors as the private sector is forced to deal with trying to keep a lid on health care costs.

Whether you have personally felt the effects of the meteoric rise of health care costs, be assured that it’s just a matter of time. We all need to start working together – right now – to get a handle on this monster.

Don’t do it for yourself – do it for Ms. Morgenstern, your high school English Literature teacher who will now be paying out over $700 a month for her health care. The poor spinster may even be forced to give up some of her cats.

On the bright side, Ms. Morgenstern finally realized what Ernie Hemmingway meant when he wrote “Ask not for whom the bell tolls – it tolls for thee”

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