Puddinman’s Health Care Reform: Overview
There can be no doubt that health care in America is a huge mess right now. Something has to be done to reign in costs while at the same time ensuring that more Americans have access to health care. As I’m sure you are aware, our President and Democrat-controlled congress are set to pass legislation that will radically transform the landscape of Health Care. I think this is the biggest mistake we could make. Why? Well, first we have to figure out what the biggest problems with Health Care are.
1. Overutilization – In my opinion, this is the biggest problem with federal and state provided healthcare, especially Medicaid. Since care is provided at little to no cost, there is nothing to stop recipients from visiting the doctor for every little sniffle, cough or pain. And just about every one of those visits will result in tests and prescriptions. The problem is that most of these visits are entirely unnecessary. You don’t need a doctor when you have a cold; there’s nothing he/she can do for you! People who have to pay for their own health care don’t visit doctors for colds! When you have to pay a copay or pay for the visit yourself, you tend to care for yourself for minor issues and visit a doctor only when it gets worse.
2. Prioritization – For some reason, Americans don’t prioritize Health Care when it comes to budgeting their income. Americans spend more of their yearly incomes on Entertainment, dining out, alcohol and tobacco than they do on Health Care. Only when something catastrophic happens do we start to think about medical expenses. If we want to be covered in times of need, we have to start thinking about these things before we actually need it.
3. Lawsuits – Health Care costs have risen and much of it has to do with law suit abuse. Doctors often take a Cover Your Ass approach to medicine as a way to defend themselves against the possibility of lawsuits. This results in Overutilization on the doctor’s part; more tests, more hospitalizations and more visits. Until we reform Health Care torts, this isn’t likely to change anytime soon.
4. Fraud and Abuse – A big problem with government provided healthcare is that enforcement of policies is a Herculean task. This results in an increase in fraud and abuse, which raises Health Care costs as well. With private insurance, it’s much less of a problem since it’s in the company’s interest to clamp down on fraud and abuse.
There are other problems, but I think those are the big 4. So what’s the solution. Simply put: Get the government out of the Health Care business and make Americans more responsible for their own Health Care. In posts to come, I’ll go into more detail about each problem and the solution to it.
