By Sheena Harrison
Crain’s Detroit Business
June 4, 2007
MACKINAC ISLAND — While business and union leaders agreed that health care should be available for all Americans, they differed on who should pay the tab for health coverage.
United Auto Workers International President Ron Gettelfinger and James Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, both advocated creating a universal, single-payer health care system in separate speeches at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference.
Meanwhile, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett and Pitney Bowes Executive Chairman Michael Critelli said employers will play a crucial role in creating a health care system that covers all people, encourages healthy living and lower health care costs. They argued that employers are best able to effect change because they are more invested in the productivity of their employees than insurance companies or government entities are.
“Ask yourself if you went to a government-paid plan whether they would care whether you got back to work,” Critelli said.
Audience members agreed universal health care is a good goal, but seemed to side with Barrett and Critelli’s views that it should not be a federal initiative.
“I don’t think a single-payer system will change the system in a way it needs to be changed,” said Jan Whitehouse, senior vice president with the Greater Detroit Health Council Inc. and head of the council’s Save Lives, Save Dollars program.
“We agree everybody ought to have health insurance. We don’t agree it should be a government-run program” said Rob Fowler, president and CEO of the Lansing-based Small Business Association of Michigan and chairman of the Michigan Health Insurance Access Advisory Council.
Hoffa and Gettelfinger addressed health care as part of speeches Wednesday night and Thursday morning that encouraged unions and businesses to work together for common goals.
Barrett and Critelli offered their suggestions Thursday morning during a session on how businesses can lead a transformation of the U.S. health care system. Their session included examples of how their companies have lowered costs and improved quality of care for their employees.
For example, Critelli said Pitney Bowes offers in-house clinics that provide care at no cost to employees, and cafeterias that serve appropriate portions and sell nutritious foods at lower prices than less-healthy items.
As a result, Pitney Bowes has been able to reduce its diabetes care costs by about 6 percent and asthma care costs by 15 percent. Other companies could benefit by taking similar steps to promote employee health, Critelli said.
“In America, we’re paying for a disease-care system, not a health care system,” Critelli said. “We must begin to pay for prevention.”
Barrett said technology also should play a larger role in reducing costs and providing better care for patients. He advocated the use of telehealth systems, which monitor vital signs from the patient’s home and can alert health providers to problems before a patient faces a health emergency.
Electronic health records and prescriptions also would help reduce costs by reducing errors in paperwork and allowing providers and patients to access their information at any time, Barrett said.
“Wherever you are in the world, you should have access to your health records,” Barrett said.
Both Barrett and Critelli said providers and patients should take more responsibility in changing the health care system. They advocated paying providers based on their performance in resolving patient conditions, rather than paying for individual services, similar to the GDAHC’s Save Lives, Save Dollars program.
Ken Matzick, president and CEO of Royal Oak-based William Beaumont Hospitals, said the chairmen offered good suggestions that can be implemented in Southeast Michigan though he didn’t think the ideas could effect large-scale change in the health care system.