Healthcare
Healthcare is another divisive political topic. I am not sure that it really should be. But the problem is much more complex than is presented. Apparently one side wants to keep everything just as it is, and the other side wants to provide free healthcare for all. In my opinion, we need something completely different.
Lets make no bones about it, the healthcare system in the US is broken. Costs are much higher than other countries. We spend much more without better outcomes. Costs are not standard, with one person paying much less than the next person. Insurance can be hard to get, expensive when you get it, and costs without insurance can bankrupt you. We are not talking about something that needs a band aid. We need major surgery. Transferring the costs to the government through Medicare for all will not fix our healthcare system. The military medical system went from all government to private insurer because the costs of all government medical care was getting too expensive. The Affordable Health Care act did not fix our healthcare, and in fact made it worse. Costs went up with little improvement in coverage. In fact many of us found our coverage to be much less than before the affordable care act for a considerably higher annual fee. None of the current proposals really look at the problem from a root cause point of view and try to fix that root cause.
So what is the solution. Simple answer is I do not know, as a root cause analysis has not yet been accomplished. That is the first step. Where does the money that goes into health care go? Or put more bluntly, who is getting rich off of our healthcare system, because some people are. Are we doing medical procedures that do not improve outcomes? Do we need to change our emphasis on healthcare? These are questions that we need to formally answer before we work to fix healthcare.
But this would be a short boring post if I left it here. So I am going to hazard some guesses as to where we need to look. First, where does the money go? I think we will find that one of the big costs for medical care goes to malpractice suits. I know that back in the late 80s, Doctors were dropping OB practices because individual doctor insurance rates for OB were over $100,000 annually. The risks of lawsuits are very high. Currently, a medical professional can do everything exactly according to current guidance, but when the guidance is proven later to be wrong, they are liable for lawsuits. Medicines go through rigorous approval processes, but if 10 years after approval new evidence comes up, you will be hearing ads for “Did you take medicine X and get side-effect Y. You might be entitled to compensation”. We are going to have to go back to malpractice meaning bad practice based on what was known at that time. I am not advocating for getting rid of malpractice suits, instead I am advocating for changing the standard for them as well as looking into the size of monetary awards. There are definitely other areas where medical costs go, such as drug companies, but I think getting control of the malpractice risk will help to heal those areas too.
Are there procedures that don’t need to be accomplished? Probably. Many times procedures are done to protect against malpractice suits rather than because the procedure really helps the patient. We need a good evaluation of procedures and the subsequent outcome. It does not make sense to spend thousands to millions of dollars to provide little to no benefit. And just because we can perform a certain procedure, that does not necessarily mean that we should. This is another area we can look at.
Do we need to change our emphasis on health care? Actually, there have been attempts for years to try to move our healthcare towards a wellness care rather than a sick care, but with limited results. A shift toward emphasizing fitness, diet and immunity building instead of drugs as the first line of healthcare could decrease the cost and need for healthcare in this country considerably. We have a large percentage of our population, myself included, who need to take a more active stance in their own health. And our high death rates from COVID-19 may reflect that state of health much more than it reflects our overall response to the pandemic.
But I want to caveat that this is just an educated guess. I would demand that we do the unbiased, data based, scientific research into the problems and potential solutions before acting to fix our healthcare system. That does not come with immediate gratification, but it is the best chance we have of bringing about lasting, better, affordable healthcare for all.
Comments
2 responses to “Non Partisan Political Stance”
Let’s chat. I have two daughters that need affordable healthcare. One in a Democrat state they expanded Medicaid Ga and one in a Republican state that did not expand Medicaid and has zero insurance. I should probably say I have 3 daughters but one is employed and pays for her own excellent healthcare.
I have opinions on both.
First, I would say you have 3 daughters who need affordable health care. I really want to see us get to a point of truly affordable health care by getting the costs down. Once we do that, then we can look at additional items such as government shared costs to assist low income in covering those health care costs. But without fixing the affordability of the medical system, putting the costs on the government can only fail. I am also familiar with children and Medicaid. While the democratic state I live in has expanded Medicaid, my daughter who has been on Medicaid has found that actually getting treatment and getting that paid for is not the same as having coverage. In addition, whenever she starts to get ahead, the benefits are pulled, making it almost impossible to get ahead and off of assistance. I mention one other thing. My son went through a period when he was no longer eligible to be on Tricare Young Adult. He was going to school full time and had no income. The affordable care website said his only option was to go on Medicaid, or pay full price for insurance which would costs over $500 per month. Instead we went with a religious based Health Share option, at a cost of $150 a month. And the coverage was as good as any insurance plan. I mention this because first, it is a good option out there. Second, it shows how our insurance systems are overpriced, at least partially because of mandates to cover certain procedures.