ARKANSAS e OKLAHOMA

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E(;ARI)LESS of the insurance company you may be using lor your group health coverage, everyone seems to be facing the same dilemma. what to do about ever-increasing premium charges? lior sure, every insurance company has its own way of attacking this crisis (rest assured we continue to fight this battle on behalf of the MLA membership we insure), but nothing seems to help.

Just how bad is the problem? A recent Ncw York Times article indicated that for premium increases that took effect this past Jan. l, nationwide the increases ranged from a low of l00h to a high of 70%r, with the norm being between l2 and 25tt/o.

lror any kind of answer to what is causing this conslant increase in premium rates, a group ol health-care "specialists" from across the nation were recently polled. Their finding attributed this continuous rise to a number of factors: o Flffortito force people to go to the doctor less frequently appear to be falling short ofgoals. Indeed, there has been a major leap in some types of health care, such as outpatient treatment. e A drive to encourage people to lorgo the hospital for lower-cost out-patient care has been less effective than anticipated because the bill for these services is soaringl Surprised? o The lederal government is paying a smaller share of the nation's health-care bill, which means that employers and workers are shouldering more of the cost. lrrom my perspective, this is not a problem associated with one single insurance company, or one geographical region of the country, or one single segment of the population. lt is a nationwide problem facing all segments of the country's population. ln a world of constant change, it's nice tt> know there's a company you can depend upon to be the same day in and day out. Dean Lumber Company has been doing it right for fifty years, and company founder John Ed Dean is still actively involved in all facets of the operation, lf you are in husiness for the long haul, then you probably should call Dean Lumber Company.

The population is aging, and the accompanying chronic diseases, including cancer and heart disease, are costly to treat.

It I may take advantage of my editorial opportunity, it is my strong belief that the problem lies within us"us" being a society of users and the providers of medical care in this country. [Jntil we accept our responsbility to use available medical care only when it is absolutely necessary (and I don't care who is paying the bill), and until we (we being the medical profession) become more rational in our approach to "fees for services rendered." this crisis will only grow and become worse.

Health insurance premiums will continue to increase until such time that American society chooses to act more responsibly in deciding what should be an appropriate level of medical care delivery in this country. If we don't, the lederal government will step in and mandate what we will pay and what coverages we will have.

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