U.S. health care puts profit over people
By JOANNA GARRITANO
GUEST COLUMNIST
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Though elected officials and experts alike are perplexed about how to solve the current health care crisis, it isn’t difficult to recognize the health care problems facing Americans. The 47 million Americans without health care coverage are not the only ones who confront tremendous barriers to health in this country. Businesses, families, workers and people of all ages are finding U.S. health care too expensive and unresponsive to their needs.
Why is this happening?
Modern medicine has morphed from a healing profession into a business where the primacy of profit takes precedence over greater human needs. Trusting relationships with medical professionals have taken a back seat to efficiency standards as patients are rushed through doctors’ offices.
With just enough time to peer into a few orifices and change a prescription or two, doctors race to keep up with market demands. Market-driven medicine tears at our moral fabric as people are seen as commodities — mere bodies to insure rather than complex individuals with diverse human needs. Sharp market strategies, though suitable when shopping for goods, will always fall short in defining the value of health, or the value of life, for that matter.
With the resources and ingenuity of the American people, we certainly can do better. Yet, we are fooled into believing that more expensive means better care. The truth is that we spend twice the cost per capita compared with other developed nations, yet are ranked 37th in overall quality, according to the World Health Organization. Americans face higher infant and maternal mortality rates and a shorter life span than our counterparts in other industrialized nations that offer comprehensive health coverage for all their residents.
Why do we tolerate this unstable and unjust situation?
The answer: There is still profit to be made maintaining the status quo. However dismal the health care situation has become for individuals and families, the for-profit health care industry still churns out billions in profits. In a democratic nation founded on principles of “liberty and justice for all,” the health and well-being of the many should not come second to the financial benefit for the few.
Close to home, Gov. Chris Gregoire has recognized the disastrous effects that the current health care system is having on Washington residents. In 2006 she charged a team of state officials, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Costs and Access, to seek solutions at the state level. The recommendations from the BRC will influence legislation in 2007 and direct health care changes in the years to come.
Though the commission should be acknowledged for attempting to address cost and monitor quality, its recommendations fall far short of offering any tangible solutions to the most pressing issue — how to provide affordable high-quality health care for everyone.
It is incumbent upon us all to demonstrate the political will to fundamentally challenge the system in which administrative waste and profiteering are allowed to stand in the way of human health and well-being. Single-payer publicly funded health insurance with privately delivered health care may just be the solution we are looking for.
Joanna Garritano, M.D., is an emergency department physician at Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, and chairwoman of Physicians for a National Health Program, Western Washington.