Ronald Reagan once warned that the most dangerous words in the English language are “I am from the government and I am here to help.” Nothing could be closer to that observation than The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and, now, a potential “Repeal and Replace,” which the Democrats have demonized as an act by the “Party of Death.”
What brought us to this point?
- Many believed our healthcare system was the “…best in the world.” It was not! The United States was ranked 37th in the world by the World Health Organization.
- Our healthcare costs were more than three times those of other developed countries. The average cost per person in the United States is $10,345.00. That is an average where 5% of our population accounts for 50% of our costs.
- Many point to the drug companies as the main culprit and suggest price controls. (While there are wildly outrageous examples of the United States paying significantly more for drugs than other countries, Prescription drugs represent only 10% of the total healthcare bill. In 2015, Hospital Care and Physician/Clinical services accounted for 55% of the costs. The rest is spread around Dental, Home Health, Nursing Homes and durable medical equipment.)
- Then we heard, ad nauseam, about the 40 million uninsured and those persons with “pre-existing conditions.”
What didn’t we hear?
- PREVENTABLE MEDICAL ERRORS continues to be the third leading cause of DEATH in this country only behind Cancer and Heart Disease, resulting in nearly 700 DEATHS every day or 250,000 each year. (But the politicians are swayed by 40M potential voters as a more pressing problem)
- SEVERE INJURIES: These same PREVENTABLE ERRORS cause nearly four times as many severe injuries when death does not occur. How much does this add to the total cost of healthcare and who pays for it? (Yet, the political hacks blame the high costs of litigation as the preferred problem to solve.)The Democrats would have been better off offering life insurance to those going into a hospital, not more access to a dysfunctional system. A single payer system would do nothing to improve this sad statistic.
- ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: The costs of non-citizens abusing our healthcare system for their personal gain is rarely discussed. Check the number of hospitals in California driven out of business by these welfare exploiters.
- THE NON-PROFIT FOLLY: Finally, since the statistics point to our providers as the largest cost center, isn’t it time to question the purpose of the non-profit benefit given to providers? Here is a business model like no other. An economist and professor of health policy at the University of California wrote, “Hospitals are self-fueling, ever expanding machines. There is an infinite amount of stuff to buy—amenities, machines, new wings, higher salaries, more nurses, etc. But to deliver good health care, what do you need?” These ever-expanding machines pay no taxes on income or properties. They are supported by charities and endowments, and their workforce can have as many as 25% volunteers. What other business model enjoys those advantages? (And then try to bankrupt you?)
- MERGERS AND CONSOLIDATION: A Kellogg Northwestern Management School Study pointed to a lack of competition between hospitals and Insurers as a main driver of increased costs. Mergers and consolidations reduce the competition resulting in anti-competitive behavior and pricing. Likewise, anti-competitive pricing has been facilitated by the mergers, or planned mergers, of health insurance companies. If the merger of Anthem and Cigna and Aetna and Humana survive Justice Department scrutiny, there will be less scrutiny of costs as well.
By now, we have learned that Obamacare has not reduced costs and has done nothing to improve outcomes. In fact, Obamacare was another PREVENTABLE ERROR by a bunch of self-serving bureaucrats who thought they could secure 40 million new voters by dumping them onto Medicaid and by taxing insurance companies $60B annually and $22B on Drug companies under some twisted belief that the Insurers and Big Pharma would reduce costs.
But wait, this is an equal opportunity diatribe. I will not repeat the history of the Republicans on Obamacare and their hollow promises, but they, too, want us to believe that they can reduce our costs by offering their own version of a PREVENTABLE ERROR. They, too, are champions of comprehensive reform while ignoring the daily death rate and injuries sustained…while rewarding the flawed system by capping responsibility for the errors.
Neither party seems to recognize the fact that people with medical insurance use more medical care than the uninsured. By the deliberate expansion of Medicaid, they expand Government spending. Federal and State spending on healthcare amounted to 45% of all spending. Since the implementation of Obamacare, Household spending and Business spending have remained flat. Government spending has experienced the increases due to the expansion of Medicaid and the subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
So, the hollow talk about “Affordability” and “Lower Costs” is just that…hollow talk. According to Tom Sackville, Chief Executive of the International Federation of Health Plans, said “There is no reason why identical procedures and products should vary in price so much across countries. The average price in the U.S. is higher than anywhere else… as well as a wide disparity within the U.S. and this huge variation is completely unwarranted for any clinical reason.”
So who is the Party of Death? As long as both parties continue politicizing our healthcare system, they both earn the title if they do not address the main issues of PREVENTABLE ERRORS, THE NON-PROFIT FOLLY and the UNWARRANTED DISPARITY IN COSTS.
Maxine Waters claimed that a GOP overhaul of Obamacare would result in 700,000,000 deaths in Kentucky alone. Chuck Schumer claimed 200,000 people will die. This is what Ronald Reagan was warning us against. These are the people who are defining your healthcare future. We should all be skeptical when the government uses the words “Comprehensive” and “Affordable”.
Richard Sobieray Sr. is a resident of The Villages.