Wednesday, June 17, 2009

U.S. economic wellness at stake


Since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt insisted on "the right to adequate medical care" for Americans in his 1944 "second Bill of Rights" State of the Union address, major health care reform has languished as unfinished business in one congress after another for 65 years.

Now, true reform and improved coverage for all Americans is within reach. No longer is anyone inclined to say, as the whimsical Republican Sen. Bob Dole wisecracked in 1994, "Our country has health care problems but no health care crisis."

Employers, consumers, medical professionals and insurers are appalled at the skyrocketing national costs of health care—now 17.6 percent of the national annual GDP, or about $8,160 per person. By 2018, costs are projected to devour 20 percent of U.S. economic output. This is a crisis.

The causes are manifold. Needless overuse of the system by consumers and lack of effective wellness programs. Hospitals and physicians ordering unneeded examinations and treatments as defense against litigation. Fraud. Suffocating paperwork. Inadequate rural services.

In his stirring speech to the American Medical Association on Monday, President Obama cast the problem simply for the nation's doctors: "You did not enter this profession to be bean counters and paper pushers. You entered this profession to be healers. And that's what our health system should let you be."

To end this relentless ratcheting up of costs, sacrifice will be required across the board—by consumers, health care professionals, insurers and business. No longer can the system tolerate interest groups grabbing what they can.

For starters, President Obama's partisan political critics, especially Republicans, must end their silly catcalls of "socialized medicine." This same group opposed Medicare when it was proposed.

More than the health industry and consumer health is involved in this crisis. The nation's economic wellbeing is threatened. Billions and billions of dollars in runaway health care costs are devouring resources that should be devoted to other national needs.

Ironically, despite billions in spending, more than 40 million Americans remain uninsured for health services, which leads to more serious illnesses and lost productivity in the workplace.

The number of oldsters and retirees is also steadily increasing as a percentage of the population, which translates into more diseases of age and fewer workers to contribute to funds for health services.

Solutions aren't simple, but they're doable if health care users and providers pitch in and work until a national solution is hammered out.

Delaying action risks letting the patient—the national economy—go beyond saving.




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