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One of my friends stood by the slide at an Ellsworth playground. His wrist dangled at a funny angle while he watched his son zip down. I knew something bad had happened. I thought that bad thing was just that he’d broken his wrist.
Sure, he’d broken his wrist, but that wasn’t the only thing that was broken.
“I can’t go to the hospital. I can’t afford it.” He cringed and then asked, “You got any aspirin?”
He’s a stubborn man and despite everyone’s urging he wouldn’t seek help because his insurance deductible is so high. It hovers around $10,000. He has a job but he doesn’t have that kind of money. So he splinted his wrist himself. A year later it still hurts.
He’s not the only Mainer who’s hurting. The cost of health care digs deeply into all of our pockets. It isn’t just individuals with insurance who are hurt. High insurance premiums and burdensome healthcare costs keep many small businesses from expanding employment in Maine. People deserve to have good quality health care and they shouldn’t have to go broke to get it.
Part of Maine’s healthcare problem is that the payment systems reward doctors and hospitals for volume (number of procedures done/patients seen) and create incentives to invest in expensive technology. Instead, they should be rewarding quality, supporting the doctor-patient relationship, and ensuring that there are opportunities to compare healthcare costs before enormous bills arrive in the mail.
Healthcare report cards that identify average service costs, patient safety experience, and the successful implementation of best-practice indicators should be available in terms we all can understand.
Insuring all Maine residents isn’t easy. We number 1.3 million and many of us are poor, elderly, or live in remote areas. Many of our businesses are small and seasonal and don’t have the size to grant insurance to their employees. Simultaneously, insurance companies claim they don’t see a profit selling coverage to individuals, even though the rates for individuals are astronomically high.
We need a universal single-payer healthcare plan. Yes, that’s a phrase that gives some people shivers. Still, imagine a plan where you choose your own provider and get follow-up care without consulting your insurance company. Imagine a plan where Maine doesn’t spend $1 billion on administrative and waste-caused healthcare costs. (Paine Webber, Industry Outlook, 4/25/2000). Imagine a plan where Anthem CEO Larry Glasscock doesn’t receive $25 million in compensation. Imagine a plan where overhead doesn’t range between 9% and 30%. More importantly, imagine a plan where working men don’t have to stand with a broken wrist in the middle of a playground because they can’t afford to get care.
Who wins under the current system? No one, not even the hospitals. The only winners here are out-of-state insurance companies. Opponents are terrified of change. They insist more competition will lower healthcare costs and, ultimately, raise taxes. But health care isn’t like other businesses. We don’t shop and find the best price and the best doctor when we’re diagnosed with diabetes the way we shop for a deal on laundry detergent. It’s time for change—radical change.
Carrie Jones is an award-winning novelist from Ellsworth. She’s also a police dispatcher. Find her at carriejonesbooks.com.
I have this recurring nightmare that government bureaucracy determines who gets to pass through the pearly gates into heaven.
“Please take a number, Mr. Fish. Have a seat.” And I spend eternity on a fiberglass chair hearing Kenny G. music through ceiling speakers, waiting for a bureaucracy to decide my fate.
It’s nearly impossible for me to understand why some people want to give up their health freedom/choices to a government bureaucracy just like my nightmare. Now, that’s sick.
Think of it this way—imagine one of those people as a Jeopardy show contestant.
Contestant: “I’ll take ‘Organizations’ for $600.”
Alex Trebek: “The world standard for compassionate, efficient organization.”
Contestant: “What is government bureaucracy.”
I don’t know. As I write, President Obama and Democrats in Congress are pulling out all stops to kill American health freedom, replacing it with some god-awful system where Washington, D.C., makes our health choices from the cradle to the grave.
If the true goal is to make health care within reach of more people, commonsense answers have been around a long time. First is taking care of ourselves. Jazz drummer Mel Lewis told me once, “If you have your health, you have everything.” The older I get, the more that makes sense. I don’t need multibillion dollar government programs mandating that I keep healthy according to government dictates. Mel Lewis made the point perfect, brief, and for free.
Second, there are health savings accounts (HSAs). You put a couple of thousand bucks, tax free, into a bank account. You use that money to cover run-of-the-mill medical expenses. At year’s end you keep the money you haven’t spent. HSAs are incentive based. Each person can use their HSA to save, say, $2,000 a year tax free. Then, since it’s your money, you’re more careful about spending it, asking the age-old question, “Do I really want to spend my money going to the doctor’s office over this ailment?” At year’s end, the leftover money is yours to keep. You can even roll it over for another year in your HSA.
Competition is common sense for bringing down healthcare costs. Why shouldn’t we be able to buy our health insurance from anywhere in the United States? In Maine, we have two choices for buying health insurance. If I could buy my same health insurance policy in New Hampshire, it would cost half as much.
Third, why not allow people, clubs, or small businesses to group together and buy their own group health insurance? If we can find 20 left-handed guitar players to go in with you on the deal, why shouldn’t we be able to buy health insurance at a group rate?
The answer, of course, is that Democrats now controlling the Maine Legislature, the governor’s office, the U.S. Congress, and the White House don’t want us to.
November 2010 is our next chance to do something positive about that. Let’s make best use of it, shall we?
