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Managers try to prepare for health cost Insurance deductibles will grow, too By BILL KETTLER If you don't like that $200 deductible you pay before your health insurance kicks in, just wait. The day may soon come when paying just a $200 share of your doctor bills will seem like the good old days. Business managers who gathered Tuesday to talk about the rising cost of health insurance agreed that workers will have to pay a greater share of their health-care bills. Deductibles as high as $1,000 could surface within five years, said Les Cracraft, regional manager for Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, Jackson County's largest health insurance provider. Cracraft said low co-payments and deductibles give consumers a distorted sense of the true cost of health care. "The driver is consumer expectation and consumer demand," Cracraft said. "A $200 deductible isn't going to stop the freight train." Cracraft joined about 20 people at Rogue Valley Medical Center for the latest meeting of an informal group talking about ways to hold down health insurance costs. All agreed that insurance premiums will continue to rise. The only question was: How much higher? Cracraft said the average premium increase this year will be about 30 percent for employers in the 16-county region he supervises. Several people suggested that consumers might spend less on health care if they paid a bigger share of their bills for drugs, doctor visits and diagnostic tests. "When someone pays $10 and they can get any drug, there's a fundamental disconnect with what things cost," said Sally Densmore, who convened the meeting. "It could be $1,500." Higher co-payments and deductibles may make people more aware of what health care costs, but higher fees won't prevent people from demanding the best care during a medical emergency, said Mike Bond, director of PrimeCare, Jackson County's independent physician association. Parents with a sick child, for example, "are not going to be concerned about what it costs until the kid's well," Bond said. "Then they'll stop and think about it. That's the reality of the system we live in." Cost-cutting alternatives such as the British and Canadian models, which limit older people's access to health care, are equally unpalatable, Bond said. "This society won't take that." Bond said the high quality of health care for those who have access to it has given people little reason to take responsibility for their health. "People have become passive. There's an attitude that if I break, somebody will fix me. We've done such a good job of creating an entitlement mentality about health care that people aren't responsible anymore." Cracraft said employers who have formed collectives to get lower insurance rates have been disappointed with the results. "We used to have conglomerates, and they collapsed. If individual employers can get better rates, they will." When the formal meeting ended, people drifted off into twos and threes and kept talking. "It's interesting no one wants to leave," Densmore said. "We're searching for some answers." Densmore said the group will meet again, probably in early October. Anyone with an interest in lowering health insurance costs is welcome to attend. Densmore can be reached via e-mail at: [email protected] Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.