Annual Mean Wages

         (Adjusted for Inflation)

    Florida             2000             2010         % increase
    Average
    Teacher           $53,911      $52,640         (2%)
    Cop                    $51,892     $55,840           8%
    Lawyer             $109,385   $118,040        8%
    Physician         $147,841   $163,030       10%
    CEO                   $138,138    $183,390       33%
            High school
            Police & Sheriff patrol 
            Family and General Practitioners
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://bls.gov/oes/2000/oes_fl.htm
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_fl.htm
Consumer Price Index – 2000-2010: 27% increase
 

 
         A Word from Dr. House
        
    Political Influence Money
    Florida State Government
         Campaign Contributions
            Health Professionals*
                2000       $4,468,577
                2002       $6,060,247
                2004       $9,739,989
                2006       $6,794,973
                2008       $5,379,009
                2010       $8,324,858
                Increase    86%                 

              Doctors, Dentists,  Etc.

                    
   Health Care Industry*
Campaign Contributions
     (Total all States in $ Millions)          
                    2000              $58.9
                    2001              $8.1
                    2002              $101.2
                    2003              $20.2
                    2004              $121.7
                    2005              $176.4
                    2006              $175,5
                    2007              $15.1
                    2008              $121.4
                    2009              $12.4
                    2010              $150.9        156% increase
                    TOTAL-          $961.5
            
*Professionals,  Hospitals, Health Care Insurance,
  Pharmaceuticals, Health Products, Etc.

SOURCE:  Followthemoney.org

    Fact: The South Florida news media devoted far more coverage to the Miami Dolphins football team’s miserable performance in 2010 and 2011 than it did to the horrific trends in health care.
    Small wonder a Pew Research Center for People & the Press survey revealed 69% of Americans found details of the Obama administration’s Health Care Reform  “hard to understand.”
   For example:
   Here’s some stunning data that went unreported in both the Miami Herald and the Sun-Sentinel....

        Average Family Health Insurance Premium
                                                2003         2010
           Consumer Price Index                                                     19%
              Premium Cost:
              United States                    $9,249           $13,871        50%
           % median 
               family income      15.2%         20.6%
              Florida                                  $9,331           $15,032        61%
              % median 
                family income     16.4%         24.4%
              Source:
           The Commonwealth Fund – November 2011     

Discounting Mom's Hysterectomy 

      To continue our portrayal of America’s profit-driven health care system as a Persian rug market version of capitalism, where only the ignorant  and/or less fortunate pay retail….
       Hospital patients blessed with governmental or private health care insurance will pay only a fraction of their charges.
        While patients lacking health care insurance are legally responsible for the full amount of their  hospital bills … which too often end up sold at a discount to avaricious bill collectors.
         Thus, for the growing millions of America’s working poor lacking health care insurance, financial ruin is only one major illness away.
        But none of this prevents the smug-majority of our free market enamored politicians from hailing America’s health care system “as the finest in the world.”
        Which is gross bullshit.
        Anyhow…
       In our last installment, we featured an American health care “consumer” discovering the grotesque range in the sticker price for a hysterectomy at various Broward Hospitals --- with a high of $66,800 and a low of $18,500.
        Hopefully, our “consumer” facing a hysterectomy was covered by insurance.
        Because if she wasn’t….
        $35,000 - mean Florida hospital sticker price for a hysterectomy which an uninsured “consumer” is legally obligated to pay. (100% of  bill)
        $11,375 – average amount reimbursed by a private insurer (32.5% of bill)    
        $7,210 – reimbursed by Medicare (20.6% of bill)
        $6,755 – reimbursed by Medicaid  (19.3% of bill)

       SOURCE: Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
       
       

Talking a Hospital Sticker Price

    Free market versus rug market    
 
  The easiest way to grasp the business model of any hospital is to think of it as giant hotel offering a costly menu of life-saving services to its guests.
    Because  – like your basic Holiday Inn – your typical hospital is all about the “bottom line” generated by its paying-buns-in-beds.
   Only the “guest services” at a hospital are far more expensive, emotion-charged and techo-mysterious than a Motel 6.
     Oh yes.
     Again, like most hotels and motels, the sticker price for “guest services”  at various hospitals can be as insanely diverse as a hot sheet motel versus a five-star resort.
     For example:
     Suppose Mom needs of a hysterectomy .
     Naturally, as a good Republican familiar with America’s “free market” health care system, Mom sets out to nail down the best deal on a hysterectomy  in Broward County.
     Which she’s able to do, thanks to a internet data base maintained Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration at http://www.floridahealthfinder.gov/comparecare/CompareFacilities.aspx
     Trouble is, as Mom quickly learns, the "free market" price range for a hysterectomy is straight out of a tourist’s worst nightmare in an Arab Bazaar.
     Hospital               Hysterectomy Sticker Price
                                                Low End           High End
    State average                 $23,811            $46,500
    Northwest                        $43,373            $66,870
    Florida Medical               $38,908            $57,818
    Westside                           $36,656            $56,435   
    Holy Cross                        $34,237            $49,836
    Plantation                         $31,094            $42,497
    Memorial South              $29,978            $41,919
    Memorial Pembroke     $29,257            $46,387
    Memorial Miramar        $28,378            $40,136   
    Memorial West               $26,263            $34,875
    Imperial Point                  $25,106            $36,653
    Memorial Regional         $24,166            $30,891
    Broward General            $23,259            $32,701
    Cleveland Clinic               $22,859            $38,088
    North Broward                $21,776            $30,806
    Coral Springs                    $18,576            $31,214

True or False:
  A - Competition between hospitals
  serves to combat the increase in
  patient care charges.
  B - Florida hospitals have suffered
  a severe loss in surplus revenue
  during the past decade.  

        All Florida Hospitals

                             2000                    2009
Adjusted
Admissions*           2,739,842                3,739,788                36%
All Revenue            $18.9 billion           $35.8 billion
Per Adj. Admit* $6,891                 $9,566                 39%
In 2009 $**             $8,615                      $9,566                      11%   
Surplus Revenue   $937,605,135       $2,043,457,747
Per Adj. Admit* $342                    $546                    60%
In 2009 $**             $428                          $546                          28%

* Standard health care industry baseline which allows for the
comparison of one hospital to another.
**Adjusted for inflation (CPI 2000-2009 = +25%)
SOURCE: Agency for Health Care Administration    http://ahca.myflorida.com/MCHQ/CON_FA/Publications/2009_HOSPITALFINANCIALDATABOOK.pdf