Healthcare reform column

(Originally published online at HealthNews.com August 26th 2009)


Healthcare Reform. Just say the words lately and everyone seems to have an opinion. Town Hall meetings are getting a lot of hits on YouTube lately but it’s not because of the educational content. One common thread that I see in all this is hoopla is the amount of misinformation. So this week, I want to take a look at what I see as the Top 10 Health Insurance Reform Myths:

1. Comparative Analysis will dictate what procedures doctors will be able to use with their patients. Chances are, with health reform changing daily, you’ve forgotten about this provision that was provided for in the Stimulus Package that was passed wa-a-y back in March. What this does is to investigate which treatment procedures have the best chance for success in the general public. It is investigational only and is specifically prohibited by the same law to let government force the procedures to be used.
2. Individual Responsibility Mandate infringes on individual freedoms. This law says that everyone has to pay to be in the system whether they want to or not. While technically true, since everyone would have access to healthcare by law without preexisting conditions, without this law, nobody would sign up and pay until they needed medical care. Without money, the system would go broke.
3. Public Plan can coexist with the private market plans with no disruption. This is false. As one Economy Professor at Harvard said, “it’s simple economics.” As of the date of this writing, President Obama may have taken it off the table for that very reason.
4. Health Insurance is the reason health care costs so much. Actually, the opposite is true. Health insurance is nothing but healthcare financing. Americans have among the best healthcare in the world. That, plus innovation and new drugs, costs money. Health insurance pays for that, hence the cost goes up.
5. Formation of Death Panels is unequivocally false. What the provision provided for was to have Medicare pay for end-of-life wishes that seniors discuss with their doctors now at their own expense. As of the date of this writing, such provisions have been stripped from the two bills because of this hysteria.
6. The number of uninsured was originally touted as 46 or 47 million (depending upon who you asked). Most media rounded up the figure to an even 50 million. In reality, the number is closer to 16 million that are truly “uninsured” and can’t get insurance. The other roughly 30 million is made up of (1) people that qualify for some sort of government program, but for whatever reason don’t sign up, (2) families that make over $75,000 a year that choose to self-insure, (3) college kids who have come off their parents policies and are awaiting coverage, as well as (4) other people who are in the waiting period at their employers. Lastly, the millions of undocumented workers are counted in this category as well.
7. Socialized medicine is “bad,” when in fact it is neither bad nor good…it simply is. Most medical and pharmaceutical advances come from America due to the profit motive and the risk/reward of the free market. Socialized medicine would curb and/or eliminate that. The current system also employs millions of workers from doctors to claims representatives to (yes, even insurance brokers). A socialized system at this point would cause a catastrophic economic shakeup greater than the auto, financial and banking industries combined.
8. Insurance companies are floating in money but in reality 87% of money insurance companies take in is spent on claims. 10% is for administrative expenses. Only 3% is profit.
9. The high cost of prescription medicine is because the U.S. doesn’t have price caps. In fact, one factor of high prices is that other countries DO have caps. Drug companies make up their huge R&D costs, advertising costs, lost income from generics and failed drugs by charging higher prices in America because other countries have these caps.
10. Voting against the President’s plan is voting against reform. This is the biggest fallacy I see. Virtually everyone (that understands it) wants reform, insurance companies included. Something as complex as our system needs careful thought to fix, not rushed judgments that we may wind up regretting.

Next week we’ll look at the top 10 reasons why reform is necessary.

Until next time, stay healthy!