OPINIONS

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American healthcare: in critical condition

By Larry Stephens
[email protected]
Assistant Librarian Guest Columnist

In spite of the impending recession, the current crisis in American health care may be the single greatest domestic issue of concern to the public as we approach yet another Presidential Election.

The cost of health care has never been a big deal for most of us; that is, until we get sick or injured. All it takes is a car accident, a sudden diagnosis of cancer, a heart attack, or some other unforeseen tragedy to interrupt our blissful routine and health care shoots up to number one on our priority list.

This past summer, I turned 50 and went for a routine colonoscopy; something that we men are advised to get every five years or so after passing the golden-year mark. I assumed that, as a state employee, my insurance was good and that it would cover everything; not so. Oh, sure, Blue Cross-Blue Shield covered the procedure and the brief hospital stay, but it did not pay for the anesthesiologist who charged me a whopping $600 for his almost marginal role in my "Twenty Minutes on the Table."

Now, let's take a look at the average cost of something a bit more serious. According to the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning, the cost of a mastectomy could run as high as $43,000; a hip replacement, up to $63,000; and heart bypass surgery a whopping $176,000. Now, for the really good news-your insurance may pick up one-third of the mastectomy, half of the hip replacement, and a little more than half of the heart bypass. You can do the math and see that you're still going to owe a huge chunk of money to the hospital! All it takes is a stroke (no pun intended) of bad luck, and you or your neighbor could be relegated to the poor house in no time at all. Health care costs are spiraling out of control, and millions of Americans have fallen out of the middle class as a result. By the way, did you know that over half a million of us opted to go to another country last year to get many of these same procedures done for less than half the cost?

I've never been a big fan of socialized medicine, but for the first time in my life, I would be willing to pay higher taxes (and, in the process, see my take-home pay drop rather substantially) just so everybody in this country could be covered by a universal health care plan. More importantly, I would be willing to pay higher taxes if we could get the cost of health care down to a more affordable level. The question is: can it be done?

After doing a bit more research, I discovered that the total cost of American health care in 2006 came to $1.8 trillion (or roughly $6,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States). In order for all of us to be covered, and to offset the high cost of health care, all 300 million of us would have to be working and paying $500-a-month in premiums! In reality, less than half of us are even employed on a full-time basis, since folks under 18 and senior citizens compose nearly two-thirds of our population! I decided to look at corporate America, and discovered that in 2006, the entire list of Fortune 500 companies raked in a net profit of just under $800 billion. Bottom line: Even if we forced corporate America to turn over all their net profits, and taxed the daylights out of every working American, we still could not make a dent in this system!

To my way of thinking, in order to attack this crisis, we have to get the cost of health care down and, therein, resides the problem. Consider these numbers: Americans spent over $250 billion on pharmaceuticals last year, and yet 29% of all prescriptions still went unfilled simply because folks could not afford the cost. Big drug companies are making obscene profits, and we are the losers. The next time you go to the pharmacy to get a bottle of pills, here's something you might want to consider-35% of the price tag goes for marketing and advertising; 26% pays the salary of someone working for the drug manufacturer; 24% is pure profit; and only 15% of the cost actually goes into R&D (research and development). That explains why you can cross the border into Canada and pay only $30 for a bottle of pills that would ordinarily run you about $100 in the States.

Here's something else to consider: Out of the $1.8 trillion spent on health care in 2006, approximately $450 billion (or 25%) went for administrative costs. Let's not kid ourselves. The health care industry is a massive bureaucracy. I'm not really blaming doctors and nurses for this debacle, but I am pointing the finger at HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) which now run most hospital facilities with the idea of "maximizing profits and minimizing losses." Perhaps, they should think about downsizing their own operations! At any rate, our insurance covers less and less, and we have to pick up more and more of the tab. It's all about the money thing, somebody's getting rich, and it's obviously not you, my friend. In reality, you are paying for a bloated, inefficient bureaucracy, driven by an insatiable lust for the Almighty Dollar, and it could care less whether you live or die.

If you think politicians are going to attack this problem, don't hold your breath. The "health industry lobby" contributes $400 million-a-year to the re-election campaigns of incumbents who are, in essence, being paid to "maintain the status quo." That's almost $800,000 for every Senator and Congressional Representative on Capitol Hill. Even if we elect a Democrat to the White House, he or she will be fighting a well-entrenched, special interest driven machine.

What we really need is a good old fashioned Jeffersonian revolution in this country, but, hey, you didn't hear me say that! I don't want to wind up on the Homeland Security hit list as a suspected terrorist! In all probability, the system, as it stands today, will eventually fall from within. Then, we'll have socialized medicine with its attendant problems . . . but, at least, we'll all be covered and, perhaps, the individual cost to each one of us will be a bit more affordable.