By Jack Bernard
Kansas City Star, July 1, 2012
A physician friend recently said to me “Once every 15 years, health care reform comes around. If we do not succeed this time, we will have to wait another 15 years.”
Unfortunately, he is correct, and that is why it is good for Kansans that Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) was passed and found constitutional. However flawed, it is better than nothing at all, especially for the 350,000 Kansas residents who are uninsured (according to the Kansas Health Institute).
Yes, Obamacare will eventually expand coverage and stop some of the most abusive insurance industry practices. But, was it the “right” prescription for both Kansas and the nation?
Obama won in 2008, advocating hope and change (although the Democrats lost in Kansas, as usual). The health care question was: “What can be done to get us on the correct path to have affordable, high-quality health care for our citizens?” With the public obviously ready for change, Obama and the Democratic majority had the opportunity of a lifetime. But they caved in to various political pressures and the lobbyists from the insurance and medical industries and deserted single payer insurance, their real preference.
The 2010 elections are past. The 2012 elections are looming large. The Republicans zeroed in on jobs and the terrible economy in 2010. The Democrats ran for cover, especially on health care. The economy, inherited or not, was the main cause of their defeat.
Would a different strategy on health reform, either universal Medicare or the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan for covering those aged 55-64 through Medicare, have worked better for them? Given what happened, a 2010 rout of Democrats across the board, it clearly would have been worth a try for both electoral and technical reasons.
We did end up with a health care reform law. But, strangely enough, it was stolen from Romneycare and the Republican side of the aisle simply because of the political cost to the Democrats of inaction. It is a horse put together by a committee — ineffective, complex and political. If Romneycare is any indication, it will clearly not control costs to the taxpayer, the top health care concern of most Americans.
The public does not understand the new health care reform law’s true benefits, which are substantial in regard to access. Short-term, Democrats will again lose independent voters in many swing states vital to their 2012 chances.
Plus, this administration squandered the chance for real reform, a simple expansion of Medicare. The “government takeover” catch phrase scared them off.
Universal Medicare is a concept that makes sense technically and fiscally. The U.S. currently has per capita health expenditure costs double that of other developed nations on single-payer systems.
Medicare For All can be paid for through payroll and employer taxes, just like Medicare and Social Security are now. It is affordable because private insurance marketing and administrative costs (30 percent of the premium) are eliminated for employees and the firms employing them. Costs can be controlled through the Independent Payment Advisory Board, an independent panel set up under Obamacare. And, just like those programs, it would find immediate acceptance by the American public after implementation.
For more information on costs and benefits, please go to the website of Physicians for a National Health Program at www.pnhp.org.
Taking the long view, universal Medicare will eventually be implemented in the U.S., because of increasing premium costs and cost shifting if nothing else. But in 15 or 20 years, our health care cost and quality problems will be even worse because of congressional inaction.
Jack Bernard is a retired health care executive who worked with Kansas hospitals on planning and cost-containment issues. He now is a Republican county commissioner in Monticello, Ga., an Atlanta suburb.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/01/3683661/as-i-see-it-the-remedy-is-medicare.html#storylink=cpy