It's The Consumer, Stupid!!

All is quiet on the health care reform front- for a little while. Things will heat up again when Congress returns from the break and we’ll likely have some type of health reform signed by the President over the next several months.

We all know something needs to change in the way we finance and deliver health care in our country. In some respects we’re thankful Obama made it an issue. It needed to be an issue. But, we are disappointed with the product, the result.

The 2000+ page Senate Bill and the 1000+ page House Bill are loaded with pilot programs, regulations, and requirements. The infrastructure that will be required to put this all in place will be huge. And, most estimates don’t even predict a break in the costs we will be paying for health care in the coming years. Employers will pay more, consumers will pay more, and government will pay more. Those providing care will receive less. And, insurance, pharma, and medical device companies will all contribute to the kitty to offset some of it. It’s not that complicated.

There are some good ideas in both bills. They aren’t all bad. But, the good ideas are overshadowed by the bureaucracy that will need to be created to implement them. It’s really quite sad. We hope it works, but we have very serious doubts.

And, through all of the debate we continue to neglect one of the primary reasons we have such an expensive “sickness-based” system in the first place- we live unhealthy lives. We live like we want to live, and expect the health care system to fix us when things go wrong. As Archelle Georgiou M.D of Fox News. so accurately put it, we have delegated our health to the health care system.

As part of the Healthy People initiative the CDC determined that approximately 50 percent of premature mortality in this country is directly related to individual lifestyle and behavior, about 20 percent is related to environmental factors, an additional 20 percent is directly related to one’s inherited genetic profile, and only about 10 percent is related to inadequate access to medical care.

Both bills include segments on health and wellness and everyone agrees that creating a healthier culture is a key to confronting the fact that 80% of our health care costs are being spent on chronic conditions- many created by the lifestyles we lead. We continue to focus our efforts only on the physical health of the individual- and nowhere do we talk about the emotional, spiritual, intellectual, or social health aspects that contribute to the physical aspects of our health.

Employers are trying to make health, wellness, and prevention part of their health care strategies- but they have a trust issue to overcome with their employees. The government “education campaigns and web sites” are a good idea but not many folks don’t have a lot of trust in the government right now either. Health plans are trying to do the same- and they have an even bigger trust issue to overcome.

It’s when a trusted resource is created for the individual consumer to guide and support a healthy lifestyle in all aspects of life that true health care reform will occur. This resource must be separate from but subtly linked-to the confusing, mistrusted system we have today. Real health care reform will occur when the individual consumer is involved.

We just don’t see this as part of the direction we’re heading today.