Last week, the CEO of Virginia Beach-based AMERIGROUP had an op-ed printed in the Virginian Pilot. Jeffrey L. McWaters’ company brings health care services to about 1.5 million low-income Americans enrolled in publicly funded programs such as Medicaid, so his take on the issue of health care for the estimated 45 million uninsured is an informed one:
…a status quo that allows 9 million children to remain uninsured in the wealthiest nation is not acceptable
In the piece, he says health care reform must include:
- Mandated coverage for each individual;
- A focus on preventive care;
- Public/private partnerships;
- A family doctor for every family; and
- Realistic cost analysis.
There’s really not much in the article that I can argue with, although I have to admit that I am almost always skeptical of public/private partnerships. (Seems like to me in most cases, the public pays while private companies get rich.) But if that is the linchpin of a successful strategy for solving what I consider to be one of the biggest issues in the country, we should certainly take a look at it.
Good article and well worth a read. Also, check out another take on the article here.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I liked it, too, although I wish he would write a second article about the inefficiency of the system. There are practically no market forces at work in health care, and it’s the fastest growing cost in government and in the family budget. Mandatory coverage doesn’t do it. Consumers with information and choices does.
Brian, do you have any idea how best to fix a ruptured spleen?
“Consumers with information and choices” is a wonderful soundbite, as though the process of finding treatment is as easy as buying a new car. But the plain and simple truth is that people go through three years of medical school and a gruelling internship process in order to learn the most basic understanding of the complexities of internal medicine necessary to make informed decisions about the care and treatment of a patient. How in the world do you propose putting “the consumer” in complete control of the information and options available without sending every patient to medical school?
Or isn’t it possible that neither you nor I will ever know enough about medicine to make an informed decision based on what we read on WebMD and the Naxium commercial we happened to see during a break between episodes of House?
Anon, I don’t, and I never said I did. But when an insurance company charges $900 for a CPAP machine that can be bought elsewhere for less than half the price, and the patient-consumer has to buy the $900 one, something’s wrong. In our economy, prices are moderated by consumers having quality choices with the best information to make those choices in a competitive situation.
My guess is that the health cost problem doesn’t get solved lacking that dynamic.
I think that’s a good reason to get away from the insurance company model and go instead with a model that allows the patient to interface directly with the medical practictioner. We choose our insurance companies without prior knowledge of whatever illness is going to afflict us, whether it’s cancer, heart disease, erectile dysfunction or chronic snoring (I just looked it up– a cpap is for SNORING??? Any reason you picked that particular piece of equipment for your example, Brian? 😉 ).
So really when it comes time for me to…pick up a cpap…for snoring… I don’t really get a choice, informed or otherwise. I’ve already made my decision and selected an insurance provider, the only choice left is whether I’m going to shell out a $900 co-pay or pay the entire cost myself.
I think a better solution would be taking the profit-driven insurance company out of the equation and discussing directly with your doctor what you need and where you can get it. I further think that a little government regulation (think “arbitration”) to protect the rights of “the consumer” could help protect the “consumer” by providing an independent and objective third party for consulatation purposes and to make sure that any federal money spent on medicare is spent prudently.
Anon. It wasn’t a personal example, but other than that, agreement here.
I agree with Brian (!) about the lack of market forces. There is also no effective means to enforce health insurance contracts, as there are with other contractual arrangements, and therefore the health insurers have been allowed to call the shots. I’m not for suing anybody, believe me, but if they could be sued for malpractice, they’d stop second guessing medical decisions. Also, as someone pointed out on a previous thread, health insurance covers a time period, and not a specific event or illness, like cancer. So if you get cancer, and can’t pay your (much higher) premiums, bye bye health insurance. Under these circumstances, it’s not fair to even call that insurance. We have a false sense of security regarding what our health insurance covers. Mandating coverage is a boon to the insurance carriers, but doesn’t solve these fundamental structural problems.
I better rethink my position. I can’t agree with y’all that much 🙂
The public private partnership idea is too expensive….The corps have made enough money feeding at the health care pig trough.
Germany has had universal government health insurance for 125 years….
It’s time to let patients and their health care providers do the health care with government insurance.
Think about it EVERY family in America could have insurance for $100 per month…Heck it’s hard to get decent insurance for one healthy person for that amount…and then you don’t know if that “private” company is going to keep you on if you end up with a long term terminal illness. Add up what you are paying for health insurance (or what you and your employer are paying for insurance) then compare it with the 100 per month per family that government insurance will be able to provide us….
Do you really want to keep paying big bucks to allow a few corporate fat cats to keep getting fat?
I know I don’t want to settle for anything that spells profit in health care anymore…It’s already cost too much money and too many lives in America.
Keep profit out of health care….buzz…buzz…
I don’t know where you’re getting your numbers, mo, but according to this article, Germany spends $2,817 per capita per year for health care, which is $11268 for a family of four, which is just under $1000 per month, not $100. (What’s a factor of ten between friends?)
BTW, they do still have private insurance. The government pays half of health care costs for civil servants, and the rest is covered by private insurance. (Isn’t it interesting that the system set up by the government for the hoi polloi isn’t good enough for the government that set it up?)