Health Care Road Trip

The recent public debate about the projected costs of the House bill leaves me feeling somewhat pessimistic. Congressional leaders are wrestling with two legislative objectives of providing universal coverage to millions of un- or under-insured individuals and controlling costs within budget constraints.

As a physician, I feel less optimistic today about the prospects for health-care reform this year. That is because the legislative process has left behind the most pressing issue: improving health outcomes. The legislative debate has instead gravitated back to the historically unproductive and partisan-fueled exchange about health-care reform's version of the chicken or the egg question. Universal coverage first, then the promise of future cost containment from the left. Cost containment now and then maybe incremental coverage expansions from the right. Barely a word is echoed in the current debate about improving health outcomes and the role of individuals and communities in health promotion and disease prevention. Hence my new-found pessimism.

That said, I still believe that projected health care costs can be better managed and future growth rates can be slowed through health care reform. But we will need to introduce a new element into the current legislative debate. That is the concept of shared sacrifice. It is time for a truly open and transparent public debate about very real sacrifice and realistic expectations for all parties--individuals, physicians and other practitioners, hospitals and other health care facilities, employers, insurance companies, and government. Having it all in a reformed health care system is just plain fantasy. We all need to give a little to get something in return. Only then do we have any realistic hope in controlling the future growth rates of health-care costs.

And here is where I have somewhat folksy idea. How about a late summer road trip on health care reform? Over the next 90 days, President Obama and the Congressional leaders could embark on a 50-state tour (with stops in the U.S. territories and the District of Columbia, of course) to talk with citizens about the specific sacrifices we all need to make in order to make health-care reform a reality. Individuals and organizations need to be heard now by our political leaders before health care reform legislation is finalized. That is how we can mobilize individuals -- future patients and caregivers -- to be active and fully engaged participants in controlling health care costs in the future.

Road trip, anyone?

By Raymond Martins  |  July 24, 2009; 12:25 PM ET  | Category:  Health costs
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Posted by: lensch | July 24, 2009 4:06 PM
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