Healthcare Reform - We've Got a Problem Here
December 20, 2022
Mission
The Healthcare delivery system in the United States is a patchwork that leaves much to be desired. It is the most expensive system among the top 35 industrial countries and covers far fewer participants delivering lower levels of quality care than many of our peer nations. This blog will provide:
· Current problems in healthcare
· Actions you can take
· Background information on healthcare
· References.
Current State of Affairs
I woke up this morning and did a quick search through proposed federal legislation related to healthcare for the 117th Congress. Yesterday, I wrote that there were about 400 pieces of legislation every two years. My error. My search turned 3825 healthcare bills, not resolutions, between 2021 and 2022. Searching on individual organs and diseases I found 63 bills related to kidneys, 254 related to cancer, 80 related to lungs. Houston, we have a problem here.
Each of these bills addresses some issue that someone thought was important enough to spend their valuable time writing and submitting to Congress.
With Universal Health Care (cover everyone) we could reduce this discussion drastically and our representatives could spend more of their valuable time addressing climate change, the environment, education, etc. etc., etc.
The US Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan office that does analysis at the request of Congress, often to evaluate the potential affect of proposed legislation, has been examining the affect that Universal Healthcare could have in the US. Here is a link to their latest report https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56811. They found that no matter how you implement Universal Healthcare the US would save at least $400B yearly in overhead expenses. Using the records systems that the rest of the world uses (smart card) billing costs would plummet and every doctor would have access to all of the needed records. No need to redo tests/procedures because the records can’t be found or you can’t remember if something was done. BTW medical bankruptcy goes by the way side – responsible for 66.5% of all bankruptcies (CNBC)
Yesterday we saw states trying to fix the healthcare problem and they will have an ERISA hill to climb. The federal government can fix the problem easier, help all of us, reduce national spending, make us more competitive as a country and have extra time to focus on the things we need them to do. If only they do it.
We need to let them know to do it.
What You Can Do
See resources below for your senator/representative
You can call or email your Senators and Representative and say
My name is _________, I am a constituent and live in zipcode ________.
We can all agree that we need better healthcare for everyone. Universal healthcare will provide better quality care, at lower cost, make the US more competitive as a country and eliminate medical bankruptcy and provide better care in rural parts of the country.
Please work to pass HR 1976 Representative Jayapal’s Medicare For All legislation. It addresses all of these issues.
Background – Medical Bankruptcy
In the US about 65% of all bankruptcies are medically related. Countries with Universal healthcare do not have this problem. Their medical bills are covered.
A fair number of hospitals in the US are non-profit and have charitable funds available to assist if you can’t pay your bill. However, if you ignore their bill they will send you to collection. Not a very charitable act.
GOFUNDME.COM is a source of funding for people who cannot pay their medical bills. According to their website there are 250,000+ medical bill requests and $650M raised each year.
Here is a personal story. My daughter had a medical bill of about $20,000. The copay was over $3000. We were fortunate enough to be able to pay the bill. Most people in the US can’t absorb a bill for $3000 easily. This was a Cadillac insurance policy for an infusion for Lupus. When we mentioned this to a friend who worked at the hospital she told us we should not have paid. We should have just refused to pay and the hospital would have worked something out, reduced the bill, used charitable funds, etc. They won’t do anything until you ask. ASK.
One of my favorite medical writers is Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor in chief at Kaiser Health News. She has a monthly program on National Public Radio that addresses horrible medical bills called “Bill of the Month” https://www.npr.org/search/?query=elisabeth%20rosenbthal&page=1
References
Contact elected officials
Senate email/phone
https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
House of Representatives email/phone
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Congress
Use the search tool at the top
https://congress.gov
Or for a or a healthcare refined search
Congressional Budget Office
https://cbo.gov
CBO report –Policies to Achieve Near Universal Healthcare
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56620
How CBO Analyzes the Costs of Proposals for Single-Payer Health Care Systems That Are Based on Medicare’s Fee-for-Service Program: Working Paper 2020-08
I quoted this above
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56811
National Public Radio Bill of the Month with Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal
https://www.npr.org/search/?query=elisabeth%20rosenbthal&page=1
Quality of Care in the US
Kaiser Family Foundation –a good source of current data and problems wisth healthcare.
Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) has a number of good background presentations and often describes actions you can take.
The Commonwealth Fund, a good source of healthcare research.