Health Care -- Facts and Lies

I have no idea if the health care legislation proposed by President Obama would be truly effective, and those who are skeptical may be correct that the plan would do little if anything to improve our health care system, lower costs, or achieve either objective.

But the hysteria seen in the Town Halls and on talk radio would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous -- and disingenuous. Having counseled seniors and baby boomers regarding end-of-life issues for the past 15 years, my experience is that all clients have an opinion regarding their preference for end-of-life care, and they are eager to sign living wills and health care proxies to effectuate their personal desires. The proposed legislation provides a forum for discussing end-of-life care for those who haven't addressed this issue previously, and would help avoid another Schiavo fiasco.

Also, those railing against "rationing" under any new system are either blind to the fact -- or consciously ignoring the truth -- that under our present hodgepodge system, rationing already occurs. Anyone who has dealt with an insurance company in trying to obtain approval for a course of treatment that the insurer considers outside the standard protocol recognizes this reality.

Having for the past decade served on the Board of a not-for-profit hospital, I have seen first-hand that our present system too often rewards procedures -- that is, payment-for-testing -- rather than successful outcomes. It is analogous to the situation in the legal field, where billing by the hour provides a perverse incentive for the attorney by rewarding inefficiency and punishing a successful result achieved expeditiously.

To be fair, I do believe that some type of tort reform should be part of any health care overhaul, and I fault the Democrats for not showing sufficient courage to incorporate tort reform in the proposed bill.

I don't profess to have the answers for our health care system. But I do know that what we have in place today is unmanagable and unsustainable, and far too many people remain uninsured. Given how far the United States lags behind other industrialized nations in terms of both costs and outcomes, there is no question that change in some manner is long overdue.