Proposal, Rebecca Longster, 3/5/2010, Team Health Insurance, MichaelL06 DenaD06 ElizabethY06 MattF06 ZachS06

Fri, 03/05/2010 - 13:12 — MichaelL06

To: Rebecca Longster

From: Michael Lubert, Zach Singer, Matt Foust, Liz Young, Dena Davidson

Date: March 5, 2010

Regarding: Propoal

Proposal – Team Health Insurance 
 

Health care reform is a hot topic in the United States.  The amount of money that we as a country are spending on healthcare is staggering.  It is strangling our economy as we speak.  Our group, “Team Health Insurance”, is considering the idea of health care competition.  By increasing competition, private health care companies will be forced to compete by reducing their prices, thus decreasing premium costs so that insurance will become more affordable.  This will be the main focus of our solution to increasing health care costs.  Along with this, other smaller solutions, such as participating in a healthy lifestyle and being an educated purchaser of health insurance will also be incorporated into our final solution.   
 

The Costs are Rising 
 

Privately owned health insurance premiums continue to rise throughout the United States.  In the United States, we spend close to 15% of our nations GDP on healthcare.  This number basically states that out of every dollar spent in the United States, 15 cents of this is healthcare related spending.  This is detrimental to our growth as a nation. 
 

The Key Issue 
 

As of right now, there are only a few insurance providers that offer coverage for each state.  In some states there is only one major insurance provider which can then hike up premiums because of the lack of competition.  There are only a few exceptions this rule.  Laws for health insurance, whether it’s purchasing or not, vary extremely from state to state.  There needs to be a way for buyers to be able to weigh options for purchasing health insurance in different states. 
 

The Solution 
 

Team Health Insurance is proposing that we increase competition for insurance providers by creating an open market where a potential buyer of health insurance can buy their coverage in any state and through any company.  The potential benefits by doing so are: 
 

  • Increasing competition will force companies to compete on costs
  • Companies will also compete on their coverage, thus theoretically increasing the quality of the coverage purchased
  • This will remove the monopolies that some health insurance companies have within the state they reside in

 
 

Potential Resources 
 

18 USC Sec. 1181. 1996. 

 

Arnst, Cathy. "Re: Health Care Reform Becomes Health Insurance Reform." Web Log  
 

comment. BussinessWeek, 11 Aug. 2009. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.  
 

<http://www.businessweek.com/blogs/money_politics/archives/2009/08/health_care_r 

ef.html>. 

 

DPC. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. <http://dpc.senate.gov/docs/sr-111-1-82.html>. 

 

"Health Care Statistics |." Health Care Problems. Web. 05 Mar. 2010.  

<http://www.healthcareproblems.org/health-care-statistics.htm>. 

Parente, Stephen, Roger Feldman, Jean Abraham, and Yi Xu. University of 

Minnesota. *Consumer Response to a National Marketplace for Individual 

Insurance*. , 2008. Print. 

 

Ramthun, Roy. "State High Risk Pools: A Low-Cost Solution to Access to 

Coverage." *Council for Affordable Health Insurance’s*. 157 (2009): Print. 

 

"What's Next for Health Insurance Reform?" WebMD - Better Information. Better  
 

Health. 28 Dec. 2009. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. <http://www.webmd.com/healthy- 

aging/news/20091223/senate-nears-vote-on-health-reform>. 

 

"Why Are These Health Care Fixes Ignored? - Forbes.com." Forbes.com - Business  

News, Financial News, Stock Market Analysis, Technology & Global Headline News.  

Web. 05 Mar. 2010. <http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/08/health-care-competition- 

reform-opinions-contributors-obama-speech.html>. 

 

Comments

Mon, 03/08/2010 - 13:15 — Elizabethy06

Group Evaluation of Proposal

 

 

Elizabeth J Young

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 16:34 — LynnP06

Proposal Evaluation

Authoring Group:Team Health Insurance, MichaelL06 DenaD06 ElizabethY06 MattF06 ZachS06

Evaluating Group:Circle of Hospital Life: Human Condition in Hospitals, LynnP06, KatieJ06, JamieJ06, RoshniP06, ShannaE06
Proposal Content:
Explain what you understand to be the Authoring Group’s focus (should be clear from the Purpose Statement). If the focus of the project isn’t clear, say that.
 Their focus is that allowing competition between health care companies will force companies to reduce prices, decreasing premiums to result in more affordable insurance. They also support being an educated purchaser of health insurance and participating in a healthy lifestyle as part of the solution.
Evaluate the appropriateness/potential usefulness of the Group’s preliminary list of research sources for the topic they’ve chosen. Suggest any others that occur to you.
 The sources listed appear to be adequate and useful, but the group will probably need to do further research in order to support their white paper. It just seems a bit short and unfinished.
Evaluate the validity of the Group’s argument for pursuing this aspect of the larger problem.
·         Does the project have the depth and scope necessary to support 4-5 researchers?
    • Yes, the project proposed is broad enough to provide enough work for a group of this size. However, the group will probably need to do additional research in order to support their proposal.
·         Do they have valid reasons for selecting this project focus? What are they?
    • Yes, the focus of this project is directly relevant to the average person in the United States who will be paying health care premiums. They have done a good job of demonstrating how their project and proposed solution will have direct impact on the people of the nation.
·         What do they want to accomplish?
    • They state that only a few insurance providers offer coverage for each state. As a solution, they propose increased competition among insurance providers in an open market setting so that insurance buyers may buy insurance from any state. Causing companies to compete will force companies to improve the quality of their product and reduce costs to the consumer in order to be competitive. 
·         Will the White Paper, if researched and written as they propose, do that?
    • Yes, the white paper can succeed, but the group will probably need to do quite a bit of additional research in order to support their ideas.
·         Is it, or any part of it, not doable? What and why?
    • There will probably be resistance from current insurance companies who have ‘cornered the market’ on health insurance, who will not want to switch to a competitive open market system. Convincing these companies that competition is good for the consumer and insurance company may be difficult to do.

       
Mechanics and Professional Presentation:
How is your understanding and evaluation of the content of the proposal impacted by its design, including ease of access (rule #1) to and organization of information?
 The group used short, concise sentences and paragraphs in order to make their point effectively. Their formatting techniques of subheadings and bulleted lists made their content very easy to follow. 
How do the Mechanics (spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence and paragraph structure, etc.) of the proposal impact your evaluation of:
·         The proposal itself?
    • The group made good use of formatting techniques such as subheadings and bulleted lists. The format made the proposal easy to follow and understand. 
·         The group’s credibility (professionalism) and ability to “do the job”? 
    • There were a few misspellings, such as the word proposal in the regarding line of the heading. Although these are not big mistakes, they do reduce the credibility of the authors.
Semester Project Relevance:
Looking forward to the whole-class development of effective communications for reaching the target audiences with the solutions the groups generate (and explain fully via the White Papers, which will be attached): Speculate as to how this group’s topic focus might contribute to the success of that part of the project.
  This group’s topic is very relevant to the subject of health care reform, as they are proposing a specific plan, increasing competition among health care companies, in order to directly reduce cost of insurance for the consumer. They framed their argument well as they provided specific ways in which the general public will be affected by their proposal. 
Based on the above considerations, we suggest this proposal for the White Paper be:
[ x   ] Approved:
 
[     ] Returned for more information and resubmission (list, in detail, what’s needed):
 
[     ] Rejected (because? explain):
 
 

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 20:03 — katel06

Proposal Review

 

Authoring Group:
Team Health Insurance, MichaelL06, DenaD06, ElizabethY06, MattF06, ZachS06
Evaluating Group:
Investigators of Drug Costs, Bridget Haley, Kate Larson, Jeff Thilman, Haein Yang
Proposal Content:
Explain what you understand to be the Authoring Group’s focus (should be clear from the Purpose Statement). If the focus of the project isn’t clear, say that.
The group’s focus is to revise health insurance or health insurance companies.
Evaluate the appropriateness/potential usefulness of the Group’s preliminary list of research sources for the topic they’ve chosen. Suggest any others that occur to you.
The list of sources for each addressed topic seem adequate for research.
Evaluate the validity of the Group’s argument for pursuing this aspect of the larger problem.
·         Does the project have the depth and scope necessary to support 4-5 researchers?
Possibly. Based on the proposal, research and solutions listed could support enough for the group, but it is somewhat unclear without having a list of set out topics to address.
·         Do they have valid reasons for selecting this project focus? What are they?
Yes. Some of the health care insurance companies have monopolies of which the group wants to shut those down in order to increase competition among the companies.
·         What do they want to accomplish?
The group wants to accomplish increasing competition among insurance companies for the betterment of the American public.
·         Will the White Paper, if researched and written as they propose, do that?
Yes, the group seems to be very specific on what they want to do. If they keep with the potential plan they propose here, they will be able to accomplish their goal.
·         Is it, or any part of it, not doable? What and why?
Based on the proposal, the research and white paper seem doable.
Mechanics and Professional Presentation:
How is your understanding and evaluation of the content of the proposal impacted by its design, including ease of access (rule #1) to and organization of information?
The organization was nicely done and set out so that the reader can clearly understand the important topics discussed.
How do the Mechanics (spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence and paragraph structure, etc.) of the proposal impact your evaluation of
·         The proposal itself?
Mechanics seemed fine throughout the proposal.
·         The group’s credibility (professionalism) and ability to “do the job”? 
The group seems credible for this job.
 Semester Project Relevance:
Looking forward to the whole-class development of effective communications for reaching the target audiences with the solutions the groups generate (and explain fully via the White Papers, which will be attached): Speculate as to how this group’s topic focus might contribute to the success of that part of the project.
Since public option is one of the biggest talking points in health care reform, it is important to address this. By the group addressing how to change the insurance companies and policies now, this will allow them to be successful in their part of the project.
Based on the above considerations, we suggest this proposal for the White Paper be:
[   X ] Approved:
 [  ] Returned for more information and resubmission (list, in detail, what’s needed):
 [     ] Rejected (because? explain):
Kate Larson

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 23:20 — JoelH06

Authoring Group: Team Health

Authoring Group:

Team Health Insurance- Michael Lubert, Zach Singer, Matt Foust, Liz Young, Dena

Davidson 

Evaluating Group:

Healthcare Informers - ChrisA06, JuwanD06, ElkinP06, JoelH06, ElliotC06

Proposal Content:

Judging by the name of the group you can tell that the focus of the group is

health insurance.  When you read the paper it is a little hard to know exactly

what they are looking at within healthcare.  They talk about healthy lifestyles

and more government control over things but never really nail down a specific

purpose.

 

One concern is that the proposal really does not have all the elements necessary. The group seemed to spend a lot of time discussing the problem, but made no argument for the need for their paper. Though there is an obvious need, we would like to see this added in to the proposal.

 

Health Insurance is a big part of this overall project. It is what is causing many

people in America financial problems and needs to be addressed so that it helps

people instead of making it worse.  It is one of the most debated topics in

regards to this healthcare reform so it could help our presentation greatly.

 

There is definitely enough for 4 or 5 people to look at and still each have a

good amount of work.  The reasons for choosing this topic are obvious because it

is a large problem and there is a lot to talk about with it.  They chose it

because it has to be discussed and there is a lot of information that goes along

with it.

 

It can accomplish it's goal if written with facts to back up the opinions that

it will inevitably have.  It is a very doable paper and should have plenty to

talk about.

 Mechanics and Professional Presentation:

For the most part, the spelling and mechanics are acceptable. However, there are a few concerns that lead our group to question the credibility. One is that “proposal” is misspelled in the “regarding” line. A sloppy mistake like this shows carelessness about project details. There are other places that the general level of academic writing could be bolstered.

Semester Project Relevance:

This has great relevance to the entire project. Any referendum on health care must involve a discussion of health insurance, so it is necessary and profitable to take on this topic.

  

Based on the above considerations, we suggest this proposal for the White Paper be:

[     ] Approved:

 

[X] Returned for more information and resubmission (list, in detail, what’s needed): We would like to see an actual section in the proposal as an argument for this paper. 

[     ] Rejected (because? explain):

 

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 23:24 — BeccaL06

Proposal Response, Rebecca Longster, 3/9/10, BeccaL06 & group

Authoring Group:

 Team Health Insurance, Michael, Dena, Elizabeth, Matt, & Zach 

Evaluating Group:

  The Physicians’ Dilemma

Proposal Content:

The main focus of “Team Health Insurance” proposal is to increase healthcare competition, so that private health care companies will be forced to compete by reducing their prices, thus decreasing premium costs so that insurance will become more affordable. Also other smaller solutions will be included in their final solution.

The research sources listed seem to be good sources. I believe that the sources used have valuable information that will be beneficial to the groups research.

 

·       Does the project have the depth and scope necessary to support 4-5 researchers?

 I’m not sure because the proposal didn’t explain in depth how the main topic could be broken down into subtopics, so that there would be enough depth and scope of the issue for 4-5 researchers. But with any underlying problem dealing with health care reform there is more than enough to research for 4-5 people. I just believe the areas that they chose to focus on should be clearly put in the proposal rather than so vague, being the fact that so many areas can be covered or taken in to consideration.

·       Do they have valid reasons for selecting this project focus? What are they?

Their valid reasons for this project focus are:

1.      There are only a few insurance providers that offer coverage for each state.

2.      Laws for health insurance vary extremely from state to state. 

3.      In some states there is only one major insurance provider which can then hike up premiums because of the lack of competition. 

4.      There needs to be a way for buyers to be able to weigh options

·       What do they want to accomplish?

They hope to increase competition for insurance providers by creating an open market    where a potential buyer of health insurance can buy their coverage in any state and through any company.

 

·       Will the White Paper, if researched and written as they propose, do that?

Yes, I believe so because they have enough valid reasons to back up their purpose which will make their argument for their white paper.

 

·       Is it, or any part of it, not doable? What and why?

No, I believe the topic they chose is doable.

 

Mechanics and Professional Presentation:

The layout of the proposal is easy to read. Nice and simple layout; not to wordy but I believe more detail could have been given.

 

The mechanics of the proposal were fine, there was only one error.  But the mechanics of the proposal has an important impact on how the reader perceives the writer. I believe they were professional and I perceived their proposal as credible.  

Semester Project Relevance:

This group’s topic focus will contribute to help solving a part of the health care reform on formulating ideas on how health insurance can be made more affordable which means we will be one step closer to helping solve one of the major problems in the health care reform crisis, the affordability of insurance policies to the everyday American.

Based on the above considerations, we suggest this proposal for the White Paper be:

[     ] Approved: yes

 

[  x   ] Returned for more information and resubmission (list, in detail, what’s needed):

- We would like to see how the main purpose will be broken down into sub-issues so that there will A. be enough work for the entire group, and B. be a more clear understanding of what this solution would entail to make it a reality.
- This topic is a more abstract persepctive to the overall problem, which makes it very interesting to see how this White Paper will affect readers, can't wait to see what you all come up with. Great Job!

 

[     ] Rejected (because? explain):

 

Mon, 03/22/2010 - 11:38 — MichaelL06

Revised Proposal

To: Rebecca Longster
From: Michael Lubert, Zach Singer, Matt Foust, Liz Young, Dena Davidson
Date: March 5, 2010
Regarding: Propoal


Proposal – Team Health Insurance


Health care reform is a hot topic in the United States. The amount of money that we as a country are spending on healthcare is staggering. It is strangling our economy as we speak. Our group, “Team Health Insurance”, is considering the idea of health care competition. By increasing competition, private health care companies will be forced to compete by reducing their prices, thus decreasing premium costs so that insurance will become more affordable. This will be the main focus of our solution to increasing health care costs. Along with this, other smaller solutions, such as participating in a healthy lifestyle and being an educated purchaser of health insurance will also be incorporated into our final solution.


Areas of Research

In order to thoroughly cover this issue, we will be researching the following topics:

  • Average cost of health insurance per person and how this is stiffling the economy.
  • How this is being addressed in Congress, if at all
  • How to increase competition among insurance companies, thereby theoretically decreasing premiums
  • How to be educated when purchasing health care (ie. how to check how insurance is regulated in a given state)
  • How to live a health lifestyle


The Costs are Rising
Privately owned health insurance premiums continue to rise throughout the United States. In the United States, we spend close to 15% of our nations GDP on healthcare. This number basically states that out of every dollar spent in the United States, 15 cents of this is healthcare related spending. This is detrimental to our growth as a nation.


The Key Issue
As of right now, there are only a few insurance providers that offer coverage for each state. In some states there is only one major insurance provider which can then hike up premiums because of the lack of competition. There are only a few exceptions this rule. Laws for health insurance, whether it’s purchasing or not, vary extremely from state to state. There needs to be a way for buyers to be able to weigh options for purchasing health insurance in different states.


The Solution

  • Team Health Insurance is proposing that we increase competition for insurance providers by creating an open market where a potential buyer of health insurance can buy their coverage in any state and through any company. The potential benefits by doing so are:
  • Increasing competition will force companies to compete on costs
  • Companies will also compete on their coverage, thus theoretically increasing the quality of the coverage purchased
  • This will remove the monopolies that some health insurance companies have within the state in which they reside
  • People will need to take charge of their health by proactively researching their options and the benefits of each potential plans.
  • Also, people will have to be aware of the health insurance regulations and how they differ between states.


Potential Resources
18 USC Sec. 1181. 1996.
Arnst, Cathy. "Re: Health Care Reform Becomes Health Insurance Reform." Web Log
comment. BussinessWeek, 11 Aug. 2009. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.businessweek.com/blogs/money_politics/archives/2009/08/health_care_ref.html>.
DPC. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. <http://dpc.senate.gov/docs/sr-111-1-82.html>.
"Health Care Statistics |." Health Care Problems. Web. 05 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.healthcareproblems.org/health-care-statistics.htm>.
Parente, Stephen, Roger Feldman, Jean Abraham, and Yi Xu. University of
Minnesota. *Consumer Response to a National Marketplace for Individual
Insurance*. , 2008. Print.
Ramthun, Roy. "State High Risk Pools: A Low-Cost Solution to Access to
Coverage." *Council for Affordable Health Insurance’s*. 157 (2009): Print.
"What's Next for Health Insurance Reform?" WebMD - Better Information. Better
Health. 28 Dec. 2009. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. <http://www.webmd.com/healthy-
aging/news/20091223/senate-nears-vote-on-health-reform>.
"Why Are These Health Care Fixes Ignored? - Forbes.com." Forbes.com - Business
News, Financial News, Stock Market Analysis, Technology & Global Headline News.
Web. 05 Mar. 2010. <http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/08/health-care-competition-
reform-opinions-contributors-obama-speech.html>.