I consider myself moderately on the right as far as US politics is concerned. I am exceedingly pro-business and think, as Thoreau said, “That government is best which governs least.” So you may be surprised to hear that when it comes to health care policy, I believe innovation in this country will continue to decline and shift to emerging markets if changes are not made soon.
The Ugly Face of Our Current Situation
Why am I bothering to point this out? If you work for a company of decent size, I am on the front lines of your current health care plan and let me tell you something: things aren’t going so great over here. Costs continue to skyrocket and companies like yours are struggling to shoulder that cost effectively. You may have noticed:
- Rising medical premiums coming out of your paycheck
- Rising deductibles, increased burden of payment, and out-of-pocket maximums
- Reduced coverages, more stringent limits
- Wellness plans and incentives to do anything healthy
- The push to consumer driven plans (health savings accounts and high deductible plans)
Sorry about that. I feel bad that we have to do these things but we have very little choice in the matter. When faced with double digit increases (increases that are anywhere from three to six times the rate of inflation in many cases), we have to take action to try to stabilize our costs in this whole thing.
Innovation and Small Business Go Together
Rising costs are difficult to deal with but you can typically figure out a way to cope and adjust your budget. Do you work for an employer with less than ten employees? Are you an employer with less than ten employees? Then you know the real difficulty here: decent health insurance is just plain difficult to find much less afford. I know too many entrepreneurs that depend on their spouse’s insurance because there is no way they can get it for their employees. And if you are a small employer, you know your recruiting job is going to be much more difficult when you can’t offer competitive health insurance.
If you can’t recruit great employees and you have to take inordinate physical risks in order to start or work at a small business, it will end the bootstrapping era of entrepreneurship in this country. If you can’t get a business off the ground without $500k of venture capital, then we are going to see innovation limited to things that are nearly certain to pay for itself. If you ask me, that isn’t innovation at all. And in a globalized economy, that is just begging for people in emerging markets to grab the baton out of our hand.
When you make it more difficult to start or continue to run a business, isn’t that anti-business? So why is it that so many people who consider themselves “pro-business” are also against doing anything real about our wretched health care system? In the next five years, health care in America will become a leading business issue. Mark my words.
What Are Some Solutions Being Proposed?
There is a ton of chatter about this (especially since this is election season). The problem is that after elections, the chatter usually dies down. Potential solutions have typically been proposed along the following lines:
- Tweak the current model – This includes either additional regulation or rule changes on the current system and sometimes an expansion of medicaid/medicare system.
- Universal health care – Some sort of mandated system of care, often proposed as single payer system (i.e. primarily tax driven).
- Consumer driven health care – Individual is responsible for health care. Similar to the way car insurance is handled (mandated, regulated with minimum levels).
- Some sort of hybrid of these – A three headed monster of making the responsibility more on the consumer while still involving businesses and expanding tax payer funded measures.
I know what it is probably going to be (hybrid plan) and I know what I would prefer (consumer driven with protective regulation) but I am interested to know if you have seen any proposals that you’ve really liked. I’d also be interested if you are one of the people that say “we don’t need no stinkin’ change.”
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It is going to have to be some sort of hybrid system. The current one is broken, with many to blame for that, including us as individuals. Government run healthcare is not going to work, too many examples of that having failed to ever make me believe otherwise.
Whatever changes we make, we simply have to get people to the point where they equate personal choices with their health care costs. The “all you can eat for $10″ HMO mentality has created a mindset of learned helplessness that has been terrible both for our health care system and our individual health.
Until Americans step up in the areas of weight management, stress management, and smoking, our health care costs will continue to skyrocket. This will happen no matter who is paying for the costs.
I wonder if high deductible health plans that pinch the individual’s pocketbook substantially will help. After all, if my doctor tells me if I drop 50 pounds my diabetes will go away and I’m paying $3,000 a year out of pocket to treat my diabetes, there’s a huge incentive there for me to undertake the incredibly difficult task of dropping 50 pounds. Right now there is little financial incentive for a large sector of our population who is covered by HMOs, copay-based PPOs and the like to manage their health properly.
I am very pro-business. I’ve worked in corporate America over 25 years.
I’m also in favor of universal healthcare. We’re the only industrialized nation in the world without it. Those countries that have it (all 1st world countries) have shown that government-sponsored healthcare can and does work. In fact most,if not all, of those countries have a higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate than we do without spending as much. We are definitely not getting the best bang for our buck.
Plus, universal healthcare would take the burden off of businesses to pay the brunt of the premiums.
This is a major area where the U.S. is certainly not leading the way as the model to emulate. We should be ashamed.
@Michael – I think you’re right.
@Valerie – I think I mainly agree with you. I am partial to consumer driven health care for that purpose. That and to get it out of the hands of employers.
@SA – I think you unintentionally brought up the opposite of my argument. Whenever someone says that the current system is broken and needs to be changed, people automatically assume single payer health care. I would rate that fourth on my list of preferences (right above “doing nothing”). I think there are better ways to cover more people and give them choice/accountability.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26794291/
This is a pretty decent and objective piece of journalistic work from what I can tell… but I think it’s worth reading the contrast between health care in the US vs. the UK, regardless of political affiliation or whether or not you are for or against socialized health care. While most people agree that our health care system isn’t perfect and needs work – as it is with a lot of politics, people take the word of the media and politicians and fail to do their own research on what is truly a realistic and manageable solution.
There are a lot of people who it seems are FOR socialized health care but don’t really understand what it is or the implications of it – especially given that we are in a capitalistic society and the one major socialized program we have is failing (social security) and Medicare is ringing up something like a $450 billion price tag? Hello? Obama’s $50 mil plan just ain’t gonna cut it and WORK.
Lets face it – a lot of people don’t know all the ins and outs of how to use their health care correctly to get the best bang for the buck and of course, effectively managing claims – not to mention all of the legal issues with HIPAA (good luck with that if we go socialized)…. I am personally scared to death of a Presidential attempt to socialize our healthcare.
Do your own research – they shouldn’t take my word or yours (even though we speak from experience of managing plans). Talk to people who live in Canada and the UK and just ask them what their opinions are? Ask them how they or their relatives fare out when they have major afflictions, such as cancer… and see if Michael Moore can sway their opinion that it is okay to be put on a waiting list to even be able to receive ANY major treatment… and good luck if you need surgery SOON…
As a society, we have created our own problems with health care here in that we have created an entitlement attitude with people in regards to health care.
1) As Valerie pointed out – thanks to HMO’s and employer sponsored health plans in general – We assume that our employer will provide at no cost or minimal cost – and unlike what the journalist says in this article – a lot of people have operated under the assumption that since it’s there (and maybe I’m paying a premium, maybe not) that they are going to use it – sometimes even when they don’t have to. Therefore we get name brand drugs just because we have a low co-pay and don’t understand the true cost of those drugs can sometimes be hundreds to even THOUSANDS of dollars difference to the cost of the health plan.
We also go to the doctor (or the ER or Urgent Care) every time a child coughs because they’d rather be safe than sorry rather than just calling the nurse or nurse’s hotline (which most people don’t know exist… most hospital networks AND insurance companies maintain a *FREE* 800 number for you to call with symptoms to determine whether or not you need to even go to the doctor and the good thing is, they will also tell you when your condition IS an emergency so that you don’t put off treatment as well as tell you appropriate HOME treatment if you don’t need to go).
2) We have pharmaceutical companies that advertise new name brand drugs with minimal information and somehow manage to elicit a tear jerk response (i.e. emotion) similar to that of the old Folgers commercials (everyone say “awwwwwâ€) and encourage you to “go see your doctor and ask for our new drug†so next time you go see doc, you ask about the drug, he asks if you have insurance and you say, “why yes I do†he writes you the prescription, you pay a $30 – $50 co-pay and off you go…. Never seeing the huge expense to the cost of the employer paid insurance plan that can and often does total thousands of dollars, especially if it’s a drug that you get month after month.
I know I’m totally over-stating the obvious (to some) but we all agree the system is broken, but perhaps instead of just looking at antiquated models in socialized markets – we should do a good old fashioned needs analysis, look at the ROOT problems and try to resolve the problem itself vs. taking the Clinton/Obama band-aid approach and treating the symptoms…
Pun and irony completed intended.
But if hybrid is the best we can do, that’s my vote…
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