Recently, I got into an interesting discussion about the state of health care in the U.S. and it made me realize how confused this issue has become and how effective the insurance companies have been at changing the dialog.
As evidenced by articles like this, How Health Insurance Undermines Quality Competition, rather than talking about “best practices” or health care quality, the discussion has focused on the perceived abuse by patients who consume too much because it isn’t their money being spent. And the recommended solution, of course, is to shift more of the cost to the patient.
Ok, I am not saying the patient shouldn’t be involved in the decision nor am I saying the patient shouldn’t have visibility into the costs.
What I am saying is that everyone should have access to quality healthcare. Healthcare should be a basic service just like the police, fire, etc. If the police operated under a model like the current health care system, I should get a Protection Savings Account and then decide when the police should respond and how they should respond to crime.
Secondly, our current system rewards providers based on quantity not quality. The system is skewed by drug companies that come out with significantly higher cost products with only marginal, if any, improvements and influencing doctors to prescribe them.
Thirdly, a significant if not major factor in over all health cost is that we, as a society, spend an inordinate amount on questionable procedures in terminal cases rather than focusing on quality of life. When this issue is highlighted, the emotional Death Panel label and accusations of health care rationing are thrown about.
We spend the highest amount per capita on health care with nowhere near the highest quality outcome (I think we’re rated 30th in the world or something like that). The current system has many problems and is unsustainable and needs to be changed. Now if our lawmakers only had the intestinal fortitude to ignore the big money lobbyists and make rational decisions…
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