Article: Health Care Reform: Beyond Band-Aids (Suddenly Senior)
From: Frank Kaiser, Suddenly Senior
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Subject: [RxNews] Health Care Reform: Beyond Band-Aids - from Suddenly Senior
Health Care Reform: Beyond Band-Aids
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD Dec. 11, 2005
The brief burst of $3 a gallon gasoline reminded some Americans of how much they rely on oil. As a country, we use more than 20 percent of the world's oil.
But our overconsumption of oil, with its problems for both family budgets and the world's environment, is minor compared to how we use health care. A recent series of Post-Intelligencer Op-Ed page articles from people associated with a health care reform group, CodeBlueNow!, carried some shockingly revelatory facts that help illuminate the extent of our failures at providing quality, affordable care for all.
The United States accounts for a shocking $1.7 trillion of $3.3 trillion annually spent worldwide for health care. That's more than 50 percent, overshadowing the estimates of our gluttonous share of world oil consumption (more than 20 percent). Health care administrative costs -- consider the ever-rising ratio of clerks to physicians in doctor's offices -- account for nearly $300 billion.
By one measure cited in the series, we rank 37th in the world in quality of care. A study of six advanced nations put this country worst in medical error rates and lack of access to care. The RAND Corp. found that U.S. adults receive only about half of the health care services they need just to avoid or treat some of the main causes of death and disability, such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
Accustomed to the system as it is, we lose sight of how out of step U.S. health care is. Citizens of other advanced countries spend far less individually or as a society, but have guaranteed coverage for all. And our problems of access, cost and quality are less alarming because they have incrementally grown as we lurch along with a unique, hybrid system haphazardly built around private care, employer insurance, inadequate federal dollars for the elderly and poor and the deadweight of insurance-industry bureaucracy.
By now, however, 46 million Americans have no health insurance. Access is becoming a problem for middle-class families. Businesses struggle more each year with the insurance costs, which hurt U.S. manufacturers' competitiveness.
CodeBlueNow!, the National Coalition on Health Care and other independent groups want to push a national discussion, leading to consensus about goals and well-thought-out fundamental changes. We must move beyond the Band-Aid fixes that politicians love to advocate for the interest of one group of consumers, doctors or campaign contributors.
But nothing will change until Americans decide our system doesn't have to be the way it is. Scientists, doctors and hospitals have managed marvelous achievements. But the lack of a coherent public policy on health increasingly gets in the way of delivering the fruits of scientific advances to the American public, no matter how much we overspend.
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Subject: [RxNews] Health Care Reform: Beyond Band-Aids - from Suddenly Senior
Health Care Reform: Beyond Band-Aids
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD Dec. 11, 2005
The brief burst of $3 a gallon gasoline reminded some Americans of how much they rely on oil. As a country, we use more than 20 percent of the world's oil.
But our overconsumption of oil, with its problems for both family budgets and the world's environment, is minor compared to how we use health care. A recent series of Post-Intelligencer Op-Ed page articles from people associated with a health care reform group, CodeBlueNow!, carried some shockingly revelatory facts that help illuminate the extent of our failures at providing quality, affordable care for all.
The United States accounts for a shocking $1.7 trillion of $3.3 trillion annually spent worldwide for health care. That's more than 50 percent, overshadowing the estimates of our gluttonous share of world oil consumption (more than 20 percent). Health care administrative costs -- consider the ever-rising ratio of clerks to physicians in doctor's offices -- account for nearly $300 billion.
By one measure cited in the series, we rank 37th in the world in quality of care. A study of six advanced nations put this country worst in medical error rates and lack of access to care. The RAND Corp. found that U.S. adults receive only about half of the health care services they need just to avoid or treat some of the main causes of death and disability, such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
Accustomed to the system as it is, we lose sight of how out of step U.S. health care is. Citizens of other advanced countries spend far less individually or as a society, but have guaranteed coverage for all. And our problems of access, cost and quality are less alarming because they have incrementally grown as we lurch along with a unique, hybrid system haphazardly built around private care, employer insurance, inadequate federal dollars for the elderly and poor and the deadweight of insurance-industry bureaucracy.
By now, however, 46 million Americans have no health insurance. Access is becoming a problem for middle-class families. Businesses struggle more each year with the insurance costs, which hurt U.S. manufacturers' competitiveness.
CodeBlueNow!, the National Coalition on Health Care and other independent groups want to push a national discussion, leading to consensus about goals and well-thought-out fundamental changes. We must move beyond the Band-Aid fixes that politicians love to advocate for the interest of one group of consumers, doctors or campaign contributors.
But nothing will change until Americans decide our system doesn't have to be the way it is. Scientists, doctors and hospitals have managed marvelous achievements. But the lack of a coherent public policy on health increasingly gets in the way of delivering the fruits of scientific advances to the American public, no matter how much we overspend.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 12:42 AM
<< Home