Saturday, October 17, 2009

The State of Our Current Health Care Reform Efforts

If you read nothing else this morning, please read Margaret Polaneczky, MD's (aka "TBTAM") excellent post that vividly summarizes our current health care reform efforts underway while offering insights as to what real reform should look like:
Real reform won't happen until the American people take their seat at the head of the table and invite doctors, ethicists and healthcare experts (not industry lobbyists) to bring their best knowledge about what interventions are most important, most effective and most cost efficient. Then we can sort out our priorities (you can call it rationing if you want) and create a budget.

Only then we can begin to negotiate with third parties (insurers, Big Pharma, etc) to sell us what we need at the best price. That's called competition, and it's what American capitalism is all about, right?

The problem is, the American healthcare consumer (and I include myself here) still thinks someone else is footing the bill. Who that someone is, I don't know. Maybe the rich. Maybe our employers. Maybe the Federal Government.

What we have yet to get is that there is no "someone else". The deep pockets are our own pockets, and they are empty. Our tax dollars. Our pensions. Our companies going bankrupt from paying employee health care costs.

Until the American people get it that it is our responsibility to get our spending in line, and until our representatives have the guts to turn away the industry lobbyists and represent their constituents instead of their campaign bankrollers, we will continue to have uncontrolled health care spending.
... and that's just part of it. Read the whole thing.

-Wes

2 comments:

  1. Yes, I have already read something from Margaret Polaneczky and it was absolutely not waste of time. Exactly as it is so in this case. She has really good point of view.
    I really like her style because she is not trying to enforce her opinion, but to show an objective true.
    Really good!

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  2. I disagree: health care should be paid by society in the same way we so easily and without debate pay for war, roads, trasnportation services, etc, etc. Maybe the debate should center, for example, on prioritizing healthcare versus trillion dollar military ventures, while pursuing the clinical valuation of procedures and technologies, as Polaneczky suggests.

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