ME TOO
The speech is over, and it was less painful to read it in the paper. His sole sentence about healthcare quality invoked technology as a magic bullet. Sorry, George. Technology is a tool, but you have to have a plan. Technology is underutilized in healthcare relative to other industries, and the potential for improvement is huge. But it won’t happen by accident.
He joined many others in looking to provide health insurance for the uninsured. That’s a motherhood issue that few could oppose, but we need the details. Throwing money into the healthcare industry will NOT improve anything except executive salaries. Not to say that healthcare for the uninsured isn’t a worthy cause. We just need a way to do that without fanning the fires of healthcare inflation.
We are already paying a tax for the uninsured. At least those of us with health insurance are doing so. Providers charge paying customers more to compensate for non-paying customers. It’s not clear that those extra charges would go away as the non-paying pool diminishes.
So how do we include the uninsured and remain budget neutral? The only reasonable suggestion I’ve heard is price competition at the individual healthcare service level. This is what “transparency” and “consumerism” aim for, but we could do much of it now. Medicare (CMS) is the largest purchaser of healthcare in the US. Probably 40% of every provider’s revenue. Their payment scheme is Byzantine and bizarre, not to mention totally irrational. The reason is politics, so the solution is not easy. CMS has the power to leverage huge cost reductions, but not the will. If only they could thumb their nose at Congress.
What about the Automotive Industry Action Group, or the Leapfrog group, or the National Business Group on Health? Mostly gutless. Interesting that industry seeks bids for materials and services but only contracts with HMOs, etc. for healthcare. If they bid out the five major operations their employees have, prices would plummet. “If you want a total hip, here’s our list of suppliers.”
What does it take to get our leaders to think about value and efficiency in healthcare? Another election?
He joined many others in looking to provide health insurance for the uninsured. That’s a motherhood issue that few could oppose, but we need the details. Throwing money into the healthcare industry will NOT improve anything except executive salaries. Not to say that healthcare for the uninsured isn’t a worthy cause. We just need a way to do that without fanning the fires of healthcare inflation.
We are already paying a tax for the uninsured. At least those of us with health insurance are doing so. Providers charge paying customers more to compensate for non-paying customers. It’s not clear that those extra charges would go away as the non-paying pool diminishes.
So how do we include the uninsured and remain budget neutral? The only reasonable suggestion I’ve heard is price competition at the individual healthcare service level. This is what “transparency” and “consumerism” aim for, but we could do much of it now. Medicare (CMS) is the largest purchaser of healthcare in the US. Probably 40% of every provider’s revenue. Their payment scheme is Byzantine and bizarre, not to mention totally irrational. The reason is politics, so the solution is not easy. CMS has the power to leverage huge cost reductions, but not the will. If only they could thumb their nose at Congress.
What about the Automotive Industry Action Group, or the Leapfrog group, or the National Business Group on Health? Mostly gutless. Interesting that industry seeks bids for materials and services but only contracts with HMOs, etc. for healthcare. If they bid out the five major operations their employees have, prices would plummet. “If you want a total hip, here’s our list of suppliers.”
What does it take to get our leaders to think about value and efficiency in healthcare? Another election?
