I’m fortunate enough to have good health insurance, because my wife is a teacher in the local school district. Otherwise I could not have afforded the surgery last November to replace two ligaments in my ankle (My soccer-playing days may be limited). I could have scraped up the $3,500 my health insurance negotiated to pay for the procedure, but not the $11,000 the surgeon actually billed.
I can only assume the true cost is somewhere in the middle, and finding it needs to be the first step in reform, so that insurance companies with the negotiating weight of large corporate or municipal clients aren’t allowed to undercut healthcare providers, which indirectly drives up the cost of private healthcare and Medicaid.
Two measures in the stimulus package aim to pinpoint healthcare costs. The first provides $19 billion to increase the use of information technology in the industry, an initiative that is expected to improve transparency and efficiency, while lowering costs. The other gives $1 billion to government research comparing the effectiveness of medical procedures, pharmaceuticals and devices in an attempt to reign in costs.
Unfortunately the rest of the $147 billion committed to healthcare is needed primarily to prop up the existing system in the short term. But maybe this will provide the impetus needed to get lawmakers moving on this critical issue. Reports suggest the Obama administration is preparing to lead Congress back into these waters, but it’s likely to be another divisive battle depicted as a choice between socialism and free-market capitalism.
I suggest that lawmakers give up their own health insurance before drawing a line in the sand. Maybe then we’ll get a compromise that fulfills our social and economic imperatives.
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Bart King is News Editor of SustainableBusiness.com. This column is available for syndication.
Contact bart@sustainablebusiness.com.
