We can address our health care crisis, or we can outsource it
June 19, 2006
Asheville Citizen Times, North Carolina
Economics is sort of like water; when it comes to cost, things tend to flow toward the lowest point.
Regarding health care, the water is beginning to flow to the other side of the world.
Rising costs for health care have been a major concern for families and businesses for years. Solutions to address the problem from the business side have included higher premiums, higher deductibles and in some cases elimination of insurance programs.
Even given this backdrop, it was still somewhat of a shock to see a solution being considered by Blue Ridge Paper Products in Canton: An option that would allow their employees to travel to India for medical care.
A look at the raw numbers shows there is the potential for huge savings. For example, a hip operation that costs $50,000 stateside checks in at $18,000 when performed in India – and that cost includes travel expenses for two people.
We can’t fault Blue Ridge for looking at the plan. And we can’t fault entrepreneurs like Tom Keesling, President of IndUShealth, for commenting that his company, which coordinates health care in India for American patients, that “We’re not exporting health care to India as much as importing competition in the United States.”
In our opinion the jury is still out regarding whether this will import competition, but this tale out of Canton starkly illustrates the reality of the state of health care in this country and around the industrialized world.
The reality is there is now only one significant difference in health care in America and health care abroad:
We pay more for it.
A lot more.
Recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that compared health care spending in 30 industrialized nations put the annual average health bill for an American is $5,267. That’s more than double the world median of $2,193.
Now, the U.S. has the best doctors, nurses and health care professionals on the planet. But we are nowhere near having the best health care system. Despite the aforementioned lavish spending, millions of our citizens are underinsured and a growing number – 46 million – have no insurance at all.
Further, we’re toward the bottom on infant mortality, life expectancy and a host of other measures among industrialized nations.
What’s more, a relatively new phenomenon, medical debt, is reaching alarming levels. A study by the Commonwealth Fund showed nearly 20 percent of Americans are paying off medical debts. Among middle class Americans who are underinsured, according to a survey conducted by Reader’s Digest, almost half have refused or delayed medical treatments for serious conditions, or put off or didn’t renew prescriptions for drugs. Half had used credit cards to pay health costs.
This is despite health spending in this nation that represents 14.6 percent of the Gross National Product (compared to 7.7 percent in the United Kingdom).
We’re spending plenty. We’re not spending wisely.
There are really only two roads we can see in our future. Down one road there is rising spending, more uninsured, more debt and the occasional innovative approach such as Blue Ridge Paper is looking at.
The other is a serious discussion of single-payer national health insurance.
Actually, that brings our attention to a statement we made earlier that we need to correct. There are actually two major differences between the state of U.S. healthcare and the state of healthcare in other industrialized nations.
One, we pay a lot more, and two, they all have national health insurance.
Note, that’s “national health insurance,’’ not “socialized medicine.’’ Every time the subject of single-payer health insurance comes up, there will be those who want to paint it as some sort of communist plot, a system that will be incredibly expensive, that will force patients to go through bureaucratic labyrinths to receive care and will be cumbersome and time-consuming.
Actually, that sounds a lot like our current system, which doesn’t even cover everyone.
A nationwide plan could work – Medicare, despite some faults, has been an effective single-payer program for 40 years. The other solutions being put forth, like the wildly expensive and complex prescription drug plan, do not appear to be long-term solutions at all.
It’s worth discussing.
Otherwise, we’re going to be seeing a lot more things like people from Bethel headed to Bangalore.
Can’t we do better?