Mitch Daniel's Insurance Plan: Pricier smokes would help fund health care

[IndianaGreen]

November 18, 2006

Daniels' insurance plan

Pricier smokes would help fund health care

Governor gives cigarette tax increase another try

By Mary Beth Schneider

Gov. Mitch Daniels' plan to increase cigarette taxes to provide government-subsidized health-care coverage to low-income, uninsured Hoosiers was praised Friday as a good, albeit first, step.

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Using the smaller number and a 50-cent cigarette tax increase, 360,000 people would remain without health coverage.

One of them is Eric Brooks, a 50-year-old self-employed computer programmer working for the state on contract. He lost his health insurance when the company he was working for closed its Indianapolis office. As a diabetic, Brooks has been unable to find private insurance.

Brooks' income puts him over the program's ceiling, although Roob said the state could make the plan available for people like Brooks if they pay the full premium without a state subsidy.

Brooks is paying about $300 a month out of his pocket for his medical supplies and needs and has avoided getting the treatment he knows he may need for colon polyps that were discovered a few years ago.

"I can't afford the surgery if they were cancerous," he said.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/LOCAL19/611180519

[PVnRT]

1. And what happens when people stop smoking?

The danger of depending on cigarette taxes for health care - if people quit smoking, there's less health care, and it's not like smoking is the sole source of sickness in thee world.

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

2. Why does a diabetic in this state have to pay for supplies?

O.K. we're sitting here in the state that's considered "Ground Zero" for diabetics like me. One in 8 Hoosiers has it and one in three children born since 2000 will get it in their lifetime.

However, I don't see MMM's old company, Eli Lilly, stepping up to help (free insulin, Byetta, etc.). Ditto with Roche/AKA AccuCheck and their meters and test strips. Two very prominent Indiana medical companies that DID NOT sign up to sponsor the Governor's statewide fitness program, InShape Indiana. Why not? Do they not want a healthier workforce?

So what's going on here? Why do diabetics like Brooks have to go without needed supplies and medical care? Treating symptoms when they occur means less money spent down the road on catastrophic illnesses from the complications. (For example, one hospitalization incident of diabetic ketoacidosis DKA at Methodist costs you or your provider over $9,000.) And why must they rely on smoker's taxes to gain even a little help toward their medical expenses?

Diabetes is a very expensive disease: test strips are 75 cents each (multiply that by 6 strips a day), Lilly insulin is $75 a bottle (I use 4 bottles a month), my pump was $9,000 and the average diabetic has a healthcare team larger than most baseball line ups. Unless they can't afford it. Then, they're just waiting for the next major complication, which they may or may not survive.

Can the Governor not get Lilly to help these folks? Or, as some have suspected, does Lilly make more on medicines to treat the symptoms than it would if they actually cured this disease?

Once again, MMM offers a band-aid when what the State needs is a major surgery...

[PVnRT]

3. You need to ask?

Or, as some have suspected, does Lilly make more on medicines to treat the symptoms than it would if they actually cured this disease?

That's not a question, the simple fact is, they and other pharm companies are making billions treating the disease. Curing it would destroy their profit.