Here’s a popular myth from the public interest community, a myth summoned forth by every activist sooner or later: We may have lost this battle, but history will show we were right and people will be sorry they didn’t listen to us when they had the chance. Soothing platitudes like those are the haute cuisine of sour grapes.
Take, for example, all those who worked so hard on health care reform in the early 1990s. The American health care system was broken. Millions had no access to doctors, medicine or insurance. For a while, it seemed we had an opportunity to make meaningful change and bring equality to American health care. Then the reform advocates were steamrolled by the insurance companies and ten years later, the health care system is worse than ever.
Here’s another popular myth: America has the best health care system in the world. Really? By some standards of measurement, the answer is definitely yes. We’ve got more gadgets than anyone – magnetic resonance imaging, colonoscopy, electroencephalograms, electrocardiograms and ultrasound. We’ve got specialists and researchers and if you come down with a one-in-a-million disease, chances are more likely than not the person who can treat you will be American. By that standard, we’ve got the best health care in the world, if you can afford it, or if the insurance company will approve the procedure. If you’re among the 41 million Americans who can’t get access to all those gadgets and specialists, then our health care system is not good.
Here’s a fact: in the 20th century, human life expectancy in the U.S. jumped up dramatically, from an average lifespan of 40-odd years to 70 years and change. The reason for this advance was the precipitous drop in infant mortality. The reasons for that drop have nothing to do with gadgets and specialists. The reasons might even be considered outside the field of medicine and in the realm of public health. Better sanitation, better nutrition and better education for parents are the reasons for the medical miracle of the 20th century. If we are going to have the best health care in the world, we need more of that – check-ups for pregnant women and infants, access to basic medical services for everyone, affordable prescription drugs.
Of course, all that costs money and health care costs are already spiraling out of control. Americans pay twice as much for health care as Canadians, three times as much as the British. Here’s another fact: 25 cents of every health care dollar is spent deciding if the patient should get the treatment, and that doesn’t mean the doctor making a diagnosis, it means the insurance company deciding whether it will pay for a prescribed procedure. If we could eliminate that costly decision by the insurance company, we could immediately provide 12 and a half percent more service for 12 and a half percent less cost than we now pay. That brilliant idea is called universal health care, or single-payer coverage or – gasp – socialized medicine. There, I’ve said it.
If the only insurance company is the government and everyone is covered, then we can have the necessary simple procedures and the fancy gadgets and specialists. We can have the best health care in the world.
Problem is, our politicians have not learned any lessons from the health care debacle of the past decade. Problem is, the insurance companies are bigger and richer and nastier now than they were 10 years ago and this Congress is more ready than ever to cut a back-room deal.
So it’s our job not to let that happen. We’re the ones who have to remind our politicians that decent health care is a fundamental right every American deserves. Let’s not leave it to history to prove us right. Let’s get it right ourselves.
Prescription for Change
Here’s a popular myth from the public interest community, a myth summoned forth by every activist sooner or later: We may have lost this battle, but history will show we were right and people will be sorry they didn’t listen to us when they had the chance. Soothing platitudes like those are the haute cuisine of sour grapes.
Take, for example, all those who worked so hard on health care reform in the early 1990s. The American health care system was broken. Millions had no access to doctors, medicine or insurance. For a while, it seemed we had an opportunity to make meaningful change and bring equality to American health care. Then the reform advocates were steamrolled by the insurance companies and ten years later, the health care system is worse than ever.
Here’s another popular myth: America has the best health care system in the world. Really? By some standards of measurement, the answer is definitely yes. We’ve got more gadgets than anyone – magnetic resonance imaging, colonoscopy, electroencephalograms, electrocardiograms and ultrasound. We’ve got specialists and researchers and if you come down with a one-in-a-million disease, chances are more likely than not the person who can treat you will be American. By that standard, we’ve got the best health care in the world, if you can afford it, or if the insurance company will approve the procedure. If you’re among the 41 million Americans who can’t get access to all those gadgets and specialists, then our health care system is not good.
Here’s a fact: in the 20th century, human life expectancy in the U.S. jumped up dramatically, from an average lifespan of 40-odd years to 70 years and change. The reason for this advance was the precipitous drop in infant mortality. The reasons for that drop have nothing to do with gadgets and specialists. The reasons might even be considered outside the field of medicine and in the realm of public health. Better sanitation, better nutrition and better education for parents are the reasons for the medical miracle of the 20th century. If we are going to have the best health care in the world, we need more of that – check-ups for pregnant women and infants, access to basic medical services for everyone, affordable prescription drugs.
Of course, all that costs money and health care costs are already spiraling out of control. Americans pay twice as much for health care as Canadians, three times as much as the British. Here’s another fact: 25 cents of every health care dollar is spent deciding if the patient should get the treatment, and that doesn’t mean the doctor making a diagnosis, it means the insurance company deciding whether it will pay for a prescribed procedure. If we could eliminate that costly decision by the insurance company, we could immediately provide 12 and a half percent more service for 12 and a half percent less cost than we now pay. That brilliant idea is called universal health care, or single-payer coverage or – gasp – socialized medicine. There, I’ve said it.
If the only insurance company is the government and everyone is covered, then we can have the necessary simple procedures and the fancy gadgets and specialists. We can have the best health care in the world.
Problem is, our politicians have not learned any lessons from the health care debacle of the past decade. Problem is, the insurance companies are bigger and richer and nastier now than they were 10 years ago and this Congress is more ready than ever to cut a back-room deal.
So it’s our job not to let that happen. We’re the ones who have to remind our politicians that decent health care is a fundamental right every American deserves. Let’s not leave it to history to prove us right. Let’s get it right ourselves.