To stir emotions the health care reform debate doesn’t have to peel the onion back very far. There are those who could always afford health insurance and are worried that their costs will significantly rise in the attempt to cover the cost of care for those who have gone without. There are especially those with numerous and expensive to treat medical problems, who have no health insurance or inadequate health insurance coverage and they need relief, now! And there are those who are healthy, have chosen not to have health insurance, and resent a mandate requiring them to “buy-in” or face monetary penalties.
The health Care Price Act of 2010 is wide in its scope and goals. First, it moves us to a place where most Americans will be covered by health insurance Health Product Reviews. This will remove “the” key impediment to “routine” health care services for millions of Americans. Tax assistance will insure health care insurance regardless of an power to pay and just because you have pre-existing medical ailments you will still be eligible for “reasonably priced” coverage. Stated another way, insurers will not be able to deny you or drastically increase your premiums if you suffer from chronic illnesses that generate a high level of claims, nor will they be allowed to set dollar limits on health insurance coverage.
To invest in these objectives the health Care Price Act requires all Americans to purchase health insurance. There will be tax assistance if you are in a low income category and if you have no power to pay anything you will be eligible for Medicaid as these state level programs may well be more accommodating and act as the ultimate safety net. Through its mandates, the law requires millions of healthy individuals to pay into the system. The idea here is that those of us who are not in need of health care will fund those who draw from it. Since everyone can succumb to a health emergency at any time and thus become in need of potentially costly health care interventions those who support the mandate feel that this is fair – we are simply shopping for each other. Next, there are numerous plans in testing stages of development that are designed to make the delivery of health care more effective and easier on the wallet. These preliminary programs are usually now being managed by the Center for Medicare health insurance and Medicaid Services (CMS) and include the cooperation of health systems throughout the country. These are complex to say the least and in early development staging and until proven, which is years from now, it is not known what their effect will be.
I support the attempt by the Obama administration while others to get something done on this pressing national issue. But there is a lack of candor about the cost, where the funds will come from, what treatments and medical technologies will be restricted due to very high costs and how the demand of millions of freshly insured patients will be managed in terms of timely access to care and treatments. I have spent forty-one years of playing in a medical technology career that focused on global health economics and reimbursement issues and believe me, something will have to give. In every country outside of America, health care budgets are limited and capped. Fees to hostipal wards and medical practitioners are set, annually reviewed and kept in check and new medical technology prices and access to them are restricted in subtle and not so subtle ways. And if you think that these policies won’t happen in america – think one more time, as spending limits are usually now being set and will be set and we will have to live within them!
Having said that, let’s keep on with the reforms, some government mandated, some driven by the sector as conservative health policies propose. Just know that i will be dealing with health care reform for some time and there are going to be a lot of disillusioned folks along the way, freshly enfranchised and otherwise. The emerging health care system will be “more just” but it should take real and noticeable loss from the majority of Americans who heretofore never much interested in the fairness than it all.