Brian Prows

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health care reform

Health Care Reform for the Good of All Americans

health care reform

Well, the 2010 mid-term elections are over.  And it’s still clear to me that democracies are wonderful but they suck when it comes to reaching consensus on critical issues like health care reform.

Once again, the Wall Street Journal,  reiterates tired, trendy phrases for many of its readers. In today’s editorial–“the ObamaCare Crossroads–we read:

“In our world of infinite wants but finite resources, there are only two ways to allocate any good or service: either through prices and choices of millions of individuals or through central government planning and political discretion.”

Statements like this are not only incorrect. They polarize the American public. Congress, state governments, and our regulatory agencies have set guidelines and laws to protect citizens from those in health care and medicine who would do us harm: health insurance companies, drug manufacturers, medical device manufacturers, hospitals, physicians and other providers.

It’s not only legislation. Regulatory agencies license and examine doctors and health care facilities to protect the American public from sub-standard care.

Imagine if there were no laws, standards or regulations for highway or bridge construction. What if we allowed any construction company to determine its own standards of safety? Would this serve the good of all in the U.S.? What If a bridge collapsed or faulty highway construction resulted in auto accidents leading to human deaths? Is this acceptable?

Perhaps we should allow radio and television broadcasters to chose their own frequencies that cause reception problems? Do we allow this?

So how is health care any different? Today’s Journal also has a reprint of Milton Friedman’s  WSJ article “A Way Out of Soviet-Style Health Care” in which he calls for “…the consensual relation between the patient and physician.” Friedman’s 1996 piece is a Marcus Welby, M.D. view of a health care world that no longer exists. Friedman’s suggestion for health care reform?

The best way to restore freedom of choice to both patient and physician and to control costs would be to eliminate the tax exemption of employer-provided medical care.

That’s not reform. It’s a Marcus Welby, M.D. fantasy world where kindly doctors and non-profit hospitals never seemed to bill for their services–a world of non-profit health insurance companies not beholden to stockholders, a dream world that never existed except on television.

If we followed Friedman’s advice, why not eliminate the deduction for mortgage interest and let the “free” market do its thing? While we’re reforming, how about eliminating ALL deductions and charge a flat 10% tax all income proposed in the past by William F. Buckley and others?

We don’t live in a nation where this is possible. Government exists not only to promote commerce but to protect us from those who would do us harm. That includes “health care” or more precisely “medical care,” controlled by a few for-profit insurance, drug and medical device companies that have driven health care costs into the stratosphere.

The Journal says: “So a vote for ObamaCare is also a vote against the vitality of American Capitalism.” We wouldn’t even need health care reform if American capitalism had done such an exceptional job offering affordable health care.

The system is broken. Yet support by AARP and the American Medical Association for proposed health care reform falls on deaf ears by U.S. Senators and Representatives who are only thinking of the next election and their own health care benefits.

The 1934 Communications Act that formed the Federal Communications Commission called for regulation of broadcasting “in the public interest.” It’s about time that Congress, insurance companies, drug manufacturers and the American public do the same.

 

Health Care Reform Debate and Lack of Trust in Congress

Healthcare Reform. Will it Happen?

As we approach a vote by Congress this weekend on health care reform, it’s becoming clear that health care is not the issue at all. It’s lack of trust in Congress.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Gerald Seib reports that a new WSJ/NBC News poll reveals voters, if given the chance, would replace 50% of all members of Congress. People want to see consensus and an end to the bickering in Washington. They want action, not rhetoric, not grandstanding.

I won’t break down the demographics of which voters are most likely to “throw the rascals out.” Nor will I bore you about the reasons. What’s crystal clear, however, is voters’ lack of trust in Congress  and how it’s handled the debate over health care.

Imagine any company or large organization operating in a similar fashion as Congress. Sure, they’re politics and hidden agendas in all companies, but members of the House and Senate have splintered the debate over health care reform. The constant bickering and unrelenting argumentation has caused the American public to throw their hands up in the air. This is enough to kill off any business. And Congress, despite what we think, is a business, although poorly run.

Meanwhile, drug companies and other special interests add to the clamor through their self-serving corporate interests.

Are there concerns about health care reform and the predicted huge deficits in the years ahead? Sure, but those deficits (over one TRILLION) per year will occur anyway until the American economy does a 180 degree flip toward prosperity. Spending money now to reform health care in this company will lower the deficit around $160 billion, which is nothing to sneeze at.

But that’s not the reason for the fight in Washington over health care. Americans, although rating their own representatives fairly highly, perceive Congress as a gigantic amoeba floating in a large lake without any direction.

To most citizens of this country, Washington D.C. is an octopus with tentacles extending in all directions. People don’t trust creatures like an octopus who sliver in multiple directions. Congress must let go of its indecisiveness and make decisions, even if those decisions cause troubles down the road. Making a decision to move from first to second base is better than standing still.

Despite Republican resistance to play ball on health care reform, most members of Congress, including Democrats, look only to the next election. If not spending money is a vote getter–despite the long-term savings achieved through health care reform–then that’s what politicians will do. It’s safer to not spend money when long-term outcomes are unclear than sign the check hoping for the best.

If this democracy survives, politicians must become more decisive and risk losing the next election by acting “in the public interest.”

Health Care Reform Stifled by Drug Companies

Health Care Costs

The Washington Post reported two unrelated stories that, considered together, demonstrate a concerted effort by large drug companies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to kill health care reform. The reports are disturbing and reveal two major challenges to controlling health care costs in the U.S.

First–and most disturbing–the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in concert with other unidentified business groups, are funding an “economic study” showing that health care reform would destroy jobs and worsen the economy.

Supposedly, a respected economist would do the dirty work of writing letters to other economists encouraging them to squash health care reform legislation now under consideration in Congress.

Second–and equally disturbing–the New England Journal of Medicine just published a study that, for the third time, claims Zetia and Vytorin, two cholesterol drugs with worldwide sales exceeding $4.5 billion dollars, are less effective unclogging arteries than a modified version of vitamin B3. Merck, the manufacturer, denies the study’s conclusion, of course.

It’s becoming clearer each day as health care legislation moves through Congress that our country is not united on changing a health care system that’s bringing us quickly to financial ruin.

The Russ Limbaughs of the world blabbering away on radio, shouting trite diatribes against Obama and Democrats who support change, is one thing. But it’s totally irresponsible for business groups and gargantuan drug companies to destroy our country for the financial benefit of stockholders and drug executives.

Excessive political and social influence by drug barons and unnamed “business groups” is not acceptable in a democracy. To argue that health care reform will eliminate jobs and ruin our economy is not only illogical; it clearly demonstrates the desperation of misinformed business leaders to halt structural changes leading to a healthier population and an economically stronger nation.

For years, drug manufacturers have done everything in their power–spending millions–to halt health care legislative reform. As a result, the cost of prescription medications has soared into the stratosphere, directly raising insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs to consumers. Seniors on Medicare, in particular, have suffered the most as supplemental insurance has drained the pockets of those most in need.

It’s time to put an end to this deliberate, obnoxious strategy of companies and individuals who benefit from the sickness of their fellow citizens.

High Health Care Costs Due to Lack of Competition

Unlike any other industry in the United States, the health care system is destroying our economy due to lack of competition.

Despite all the arguments from health care experts, the “industry,” a confluence of insurance companies, providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical technology companies and lobbyists, is responsible for high health care costs. Breaking up the health care monopoly is a necessary step to halt price increases.
Health insurance conglomerates, by far, are the biggest culprits. They control the premiums charged to businesses and their employees (the majority of the insured). They decide how physicians, hospitals and other providers are reimbursed. Most important, their relationship with drug manufacturers, who produce brand or generic medicines, is the single most important contributor to health care price escalation.

The largest five pharmaceutical manufacturers gobble up 80% or more of drug dollars, spend millions on lobbying and attempt to drive smaller, generic drug companies out of business through years of litigation.

Can you imagine another industry in our “free economy” that operates this way? Would the Department of Justice and FTC allow computer manufacturers, large retail chains, oil companies or any other industry in the United States to set prices by controlling the distribution chain?  Clearly, no.

Current proposed legislation in Congress, stymied by opposition to a “national health plan,”will not by itself reduce what the average American pays for health care. We’ll only resolve our health care cost dilemma by breaking up health care conglomerates that control health care delivery and fostering competition in the market.