Address the Health Crisis First

Polls are telling the president that his health-care reform approach is both confused and flawed. There are three fundamental problems: declining health, unsustainably high rates of health-care cost increases and the need for universal, affordable health insurance. The president needs to decide which of these problems he wants to address, in which order, and he needs to articulate what problem he is addressing, how he is addressing it, and what will happen. His message and actions need to be simple, clear, credible, and powerful.

Poor and declining health, as evidenced by our rapid increases in lifestyle-induced chronic diseases, is the root cause of health-care cost increases and the unaffordability of health insurance. Therefore, the president should attack the health crisis first. He should focus on prevention and wellness ahead of everything else.

The health insurance crisis is the result of the first two problems. Solving it without addressing the first two problems will have the perverse effect of increasing demand for health services and stimulating even higher cost increases. My reasoning is based on two simple, but proven, theories:
• We get the best results in solving a problem at its roots. Global product manufacturers produced better quality by designing it into the product, not by end-of-the-line inspections and recalls. We will solve all three problems if people are healthier and do not need as much care.
• We cannot increase demand for a service without increasing the supply of providers without seeing massive price inflation. When there is an imbalance of demand over supply, health care cost inflation results. As Susanne King of the Boston Globe pointed out, Massachusetts' universal insurance effort has yielded an increase an unsustainable increase in Commonwealth Care from $630 million in 2007 to $1.3 billion in 2009.

By Michael Critelli  |  August 25, 2009; 9:25 AM ET  | Category:  Health Care Reform , Health costs , Insurance , Presidential leadership
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Posted by: agapn9 | August 27, 2009 10:50 AM
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