Healthcare is the Economy:

I read, with great interest, Todd Sloane’s editorial entitled “The New Insurance Backlash” in the February 25th issue of Modern Healthcare. To me, one of the most telling lines was, “On January 23, the day Wellpoint reported a 8% gain in 2007 profits (to $3.35 billion), its share price fell by $2.90 because it also reported that it spent almost two cents more of each premium dollar on –wait for it- patient care.”

I truly believe one could make a good argument that healthcare is the number one issue in this year’s election. It is the biggest challenge affecting the ability of both big and small businesses to compete.

Below, I offer my own assumptions or definitions that are necessary to frame my conclusion for a combined Hillary/Obama/Huckabee/McCain plan – one that would fit well with Bernake’s suggestions for stimulating economic growth. So how would this work?

It would work, I believe, in a free market, competitive system. One with a fair and level playing field and--let’s face it-- the consumers of healthcare don’t have the information they need on quality and especially on price (i.e. money they will spend out of their own pockets). We have been preaching transparency, but truly have done very little about it because of all (issues posed by) the special interests; primarily insurance companies. Hilary and Obama would like to limit the amount of premium dollars that go to insurance companies. Under that theory, hospitals and doctors certainly could perform better and if healthcare consumers knew what they had to pay for in advance of many of procedures/tests they would certainly shop around for the best price.

We have been working on quality data for years and if we truly want peer review to work, we must do something about malpractice. However, I am encouraged that some doctors and hospitals are sharing their complication rates and mortality statistics with other key information on their websites. We don’t need a single payer system but we could certainly use a single payment system that is much simpler and makes individuals more accountable for themselves; we do need more of a wellness system than our current sick care system.

There is a lot that could change and bring both parties together and provide the stimulus for doctors and hospitals to improve as well; let’s quit talking about transparency and do something about it.