The Mission of the Century; the Opportunity of our Lifetime

September 4, 2009 No Comments

The Mission of the Century; the Opportunity of our Lifetime

Recently, health care reform has taken up much of the spotlight in national politics and discourse.  We have seen town halls filled with anger and confrontation.  What is needed now more than ever however, as health care continues to eat away at our nation’s vitality, is a thoughtful, comprehensive, and unvarnished view at the situation.  We must step away from the ideology and frustration of the past, to find solutions and lead.

The State of Health Care

• Currently, estimates put the total number of people living without insurance at between 46 and 54 million Americans.  This figure does not include those with insufficient or ineffective insurance.  (Census Bureau, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistics)
• 33% of the population or 90 million people below 65 spent part of the last two years without insurance.
• Due to recession factors, another 7 million people are expected to join the ranks of the uninsured by 2010.
• 80% of the uninsured population comes from working families.
• The burden of the uninsured falls disproportionately on minorities and immigrants.
• Due to the rapid rise in inflation and insurance premiums, insurance costs are beginning to make health care impossible through either employer-provided or self-accessed means.
• In 2009, we will have spent $2.9 trillion on health care (nearly 18% of the total GDP) and by 2018 we will be spending $ 4.4 trillion on health care costs.  Furthermore, the pace at which we spend on health care will outstrip any rise in GDP so this will become a bigger and bigger percentage of our national expenditures.
• The NCHC reports that, “The United States spends more money on medical care than any other industrialized country, yet it performs worse on nearly all measures of health care quality and health outcomes.”
• High administrative costs and error rates, varying quality and costs all increase the ultimate price of our health care system and plague our society with more sickness and death.
• Nearly half of all American have suffered or will suffer from the following chronic, costly, and preventable: heart disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes, and cancer.  75% of medical money is spent treating diseases like these and 70% of all deaths are caused by diseases like these.
• 33% of all deaths can be linked to such behavior as smoking, eating poorly, and not exercising adequately.
• Nearly 20% of all adults smoke which is equivalent to the amount of deaths each year that are caused by smoking-nearly one in five!
• Obesity plagues our country-67% of Americans is either obese or overweight.  This problem is more prevalent in low-income and minority homes due to socioeconomic factors.
• Our inefficient health care system, which has seen higher and higher prices with lower and lower quality, slows job growth, slows corporate growth, raises the amount of their own money that families have to spend, makes us less competitive internationally and more insolvent domestically.
• According to the NCHC, “According to one study, of the $2.1 trillion the U.S. spent on health care in 2006, nearly $650 billion was above what we would expect to spend based on the level of U.S. wealth versus other nations.  These additional costs are attributable to $436 billion outpatient care and another $186 billion of spending related to high administrative costs.”
• Uninsured individuals and their families will be hurt in a myriad of ways if the current health system continues, some of which include the following: nearly 20,000 excess deaths per year, higher mortality due to less prevention and therapy, 1.6 times more likely to die within 5 years of the same illness than insured patients,  90% of the uninsured forego care at some point due to financial insufficiency, and they are traditionally denied access to medical attention, prevention, and check-ups from fears of their inability to pay.
• 62% of bankruptcies filed in 2007 were related to an inability to pay for medical-care costs.
• 1.5 million families lose their homes from an inability to pay health care costs every year.
• The error and inefficiency with which our health care system operates directly results in thousands of premature deaths from preventable illnesses, and millions of infections due to hospital error.

This mere glimpse into the state of our health care system should give us a sense of what has happened and what can happen.

The Opportunity of Health Care

• The waste and inefficiency of the administration of health care is nearly $200 billion or 10% of the total cost.  This needs to be addressed and lowered.
• Above it was illustrated that 20% of deaths can be traced to smoking (largely through lung cancer).  Importantly, 80% of adult smokers started before the age of 18 and 90% started before the age of 20.  If we can get to them young and “keep them smokeless” then we will go a long way towards reducing this health risk.  Towards reducing the prevalence of smoking, there must be a better legal outreach.  If 80% of smokers started prior to turning 18 then the government was not enforcing the law and this needs to be rectified.  Also, only a few states adequately fund mandated centers for prevention of smoking and the vast majority hardly even funds these centers at 50%.  The law here needs to be enforced as well.  Finally, in regards to smoking, 70% of smokers want to quit but only 5% are successful in doing so.  We have a willing base to work with and sometimes that is the most important thing.
• As was alluded to above, a vast portion of health problems and costs stem from preventable illnesses: obesity, certain forms of cancer and diabetes, pulmonary and heart issues for example.  If we take obesity as an example, the nation loses $200 billion every year from medical expenses and loss of worker productivity in relation to the health complications of being overweight.  If we invest early, it could pay off down the long run.

To summarize, in the health care industry we have increasing prices coupled with decreasing efficiency and quality.  Yet, there is room to grow, places to save, and a chance to turnaround if we begin again with a different focus.  If slavery and civil rights, fascism and communism have been the mountains of our past, then surely health care is the summit of our future.  It is the opportunity of our lifetime to seize this moment and transform the way we take care of each other; we will save lives, we will save money, and we will have a better tomorrow if we begin today.

List of sources used:

http://www.nchc.org/

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