“Diagnosing” the U.S. health care system: in Soundings Magazine

“Diagnosing” the U.S. health care system: in Soundings Magazine

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So why aren’t we getting better results?

Read the full article in Soundings Magazine, Fall 09 edition.

Key quotes from the article:

• “Ironically, American’s collective unwillingness to pay for universal health care costs the country dearly. Without good preventive care, America’s 43.6 million uninsured must often resort to emergency and acute care — the most expensive types of medical treatment."

• “It would be much cheaper to provide primary care rather than waiting until people present to emergency rooms,” David Jones says. “I think that if we provided care to everyone, costs would come down."

• “Universal coverage in America is expected to cost $1 trillion over 10 years — not a small amount, but a figure equivalent to the amount health care costs rise each year, according to Jonathan Gruber, Professor of Economics. “Think about it, we could cover all the uninsured in America for the cost of one year’s growth in cost,” he says.

• The current system of employer-sponsored health insurance also effectively locks people into their jobs, strangling entrepreneurship, Gruber observes.

• Campbell, Gruber, and Jones all say they would like to see a public option included in any national health care reform legislation. “I think it would outperform private insurance,” Jones says.

• Be that as it may, it’s clear the United States is not going to nationalize a $500 billion industry, Gruber says. “If you think about steps toward cost control in America, there are easy steps and there are harder steps,” he says. Starting with universal coverage will give everyone a stake in controlling costs going forward, he says.