Did you catch President Obama’s speech to Congress on health care reform last week? He gave an accurate summary of the problems people have in getting, keeping and affording insurance. He even mentioned that medical costs will swamp the federal budget. But he didn’t talk much about how to curb those costs, especially once everybody gets coverage.
And I was disappointed that when he reeled off the list of groups who were on board with reform, he left out health plans. That’s such a bummer because they were the first ones to the table, offering to reform their industry to get rid of the practices that people complain about: pre-existing conditions that prevent coverage or payment of claims.
All the insurer reforms the president mentioned were offered by the industry itself, yet he left the impression these changes are being “done to” the one part of the system that volunteered for reform.
I get it from the letters to the editor that some people think the only reform that matters is offering government insurance and/or getting rid of private insurance. But no matter what kind of coverage method we have, it’s really important to fix the whole system, not just who signs the check.
Here’s the deal: 87 cents of our health care dollar goes to doctors, hospitals, pharmaceuticals and other health care goods and services. That’s $8000 a year for each of us. Experts say maybe a third of that is wasted. That’s scary and reform has to fix that, too. So, where’s it going?
In a system of “disease care” 75 cents of each health care dollar goes to preventable chronic conditions
We use a lot of treatment that may not improve care and may expose us to risk: MRIs, CTs, etc
Quality issues can curb costs but they aren’t widely implemented, even simple ones like checklists, that reduce hospital-borne infections.
Doctors and hospitals are paid based on procedures, not better health; only last year, Medicare quit paying for “never” events like cutting off the wrong limb
Fraud takes tens of billions a year, a low estimate is 3% of all our health care dollars, from a variety of schemes: dummy companies getting Medicare funds for phantom equipment to unnecessary medical treatment.
Dollars wasted by duplication and uncoordinated care could be recovered with wide use of electronic medical records to put patient information in doctors’ hands.
Getting everybody covered is easy. Curbing costs so our country can afford it is hard. I don’t know about you, but I want to see health care reform accomplish both of these.
