Cost shifting: the final straw in federalization of health care

While cost controls applied by Medicare and indemnity insurance programs initially helped curtail abusive medical billing practices, creative billing techniques have since resulted in runaway medical costs and rising insurance premiums. Employers have been forced to increase employee's contributions to health care by increasing deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance or by simply dropping health care benefits. If National Health Insurance comes to pass, and that is a cry now coming from major employers, it will be followed in time by federalization of all health care delivery systems, including Workers' Compensation. It is the providers who shift their fees into Workers' Compensation, which pays from the first dollar, who will cause the business community to petition Washington for relief. It will claim the need for cost controls in Workers' Compensation to keep American business competitive in world markets.