The Health Care Debate
This morning on Facebook a grassroots effort to engage our social circles in the discussion of health care reform was going viral through status updates that read
“…thinks that no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day. Or until something interesting happens.”
I saw it in the status of a family friend and, since this is one of my personal passions, posted it as my own. On both my friend’s “feed” and my own there was some immediate response, which included “Agreed. But what’s the solution?”
I was raised in a family of progressives and much to their continuous dismay, turned out to be a centrist on most things. I’m not wishy-washy. I truly believe that good ideas are out there on ALL issues and that most people believe deeply in their. I’m all about RESPECTFUL DISCUSSION. To me, that means really listening to the thoughts and concerns of others and trying to understand their point of view – without talking over them.
I’m not an economist or a health care expert. I’m the owner of a (very) small business, a wife and mother, a daughter, granddaughter and aunt. I do bring to this discussion the experience of having worked in the managed care industry for about 6 years in the 1990s – first at a large Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in California and then in administration at a small consulting firm that focused primarily on helping specialists understand managed care and how to transition their practices to work within the system. I worked with incredibly smart people who understood managed care and its impacts on doctors, employers and patients. One of my jobs was the “English to English” translation of managed care speak so that anyone could make sense of what was being said.
Here are a few things I’ve grown to believe through these experiences:
1) Managed Care is a good thing. I believe in clinical protocols and preventive care.
2) “Every one is a focus group of one” I don’t know if my managed care mentor, BCS, was the first to coin the phrase, but it’s so true. Translation: your experience with health care is the most critical factor in your view of the system
3) Many health insurance plans have lost their souls in the quest to be publicly traded companies.
4) Everyone wants to see something change, but the fear of the unknown is paralyzing.
I’m the first to admit that my “focus group” looks at the offerings of my husband’s employer first to make sure that my son’s pediatrician is one of the providers. We have insurance but our current coverage is pretty expensive ($800 per month for our family). Even with coverage, my son’s recent bought with pink eye was nearly $100 out of pocket between co-pay and prescription.
I believe in capitalism. I think having an idea, marketing it and letting the consumer purchase a product is awesome, and it’s perfectly fine to make a profit. What I don’t believe in is greed. And if we’re all honest with ourselves for a moment, we’ll admit that there is an element of greed underlying this discussion. Some of the greed is monetary. Health insurers have increasingly become publicly traded entities with a need to cut expenses to increase profits and shareholder dividends. Executives are under extreme pressure to keep those profits growing and the only ways to do that are raise income (rates) and decrease expenses (deny benefits).
Some greed is emotional. We all want to live the fullest lives possible. We all want Gramma to live forever, even when that means demanding life extending treatments for the aged or terminal that we would scoff at as ridiculous if we heard about them in the news. More isn’t always better. Sometimes it’s just more.
FEAR is a huge part of this discussion. I don’t know an adult that doesn’t fear losing their job and benefits. There’s also the fear of “what will happen to my coverage” in order to get those without insurance coverage. We’re afraid some paper pusher somewhere (and it doesn’t have to be a government bureaucrat, it happens in the private sector, too) will deny us, or a family member, a referral to a specialist or won’t cover a prescription or treatment plan.
Is there a solution? Where and how does it get implemented? How do we cover everyone without it becoming a huge government program? How do we make it affordable, quality coverage? I don’t have the answers, but maybe through a RESPECTFUL EXCHANGE OF IDEAS we can come to a better understanding of the needs and fears we all have when this topic comes up.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts, ideas and then share this post with others to see if we can collectively come up with some ideas to take to the discussion of health care reform.
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I suggest the fundamental flaw in US governmental spending is that the universal well-being of US citizen is not the primary recipient of programs sponsored by US taxes. The US government pays for programs whose benefits are outside the US economy, outside our borders, outside our continent, and outside our planet without satisfying the basic survival needs of the US citizen: health (food, shelter, medical care) and defense (security from physical violence).
This habit of spending leads us to think of US Healthcare Reform as a part of the US budget which will be taxed IN ADDITION TO current programs (worst case), or INSTEAD OF beloved programs (most probable). Yet I postulate that the average US citizen would be more interested in paying taxes for universal health and universal defense for every citizen. Sane people generally think it’s more important to pay for basic survival needs before paying for personal luxuries or the survival needs of others. This is true for any rational individual, family, clan, or state.
Why are US taxes paying for a space station before all US citizens have homes? Why are US taxes paying for highways when all US citizens don’t have enough to eat? Why are US Taxes paying for protection of foreign interests when all US Citizens are not protected? Because somewhere between theory and practice, US Government spending became controlled by more political whimsy than by the needs of the citizen.
Like many successful, stable, healthy, fiscally-responsible, democratic governments, the United States should pay for the universal health and universal defense of all its citizens first, and worry about luxuries and the survival needs of others as a secondary expense. Food, shelter, medical care and defense against violence are the most important needs of the US citizen. The US government should act accordingly when it budgets our federal taxes.