Sick Care in the United States is unconscionably expensive, and yet the health of Americans is overall mediocre to poor. Many people have been trying to shift to a single-payer system (clearly the best concept) in a major way since at least the Clinton Administration in the 1990s. Nothing happened then, and so far, a little progress happened with the Affordable Care Act, a decade ago. Moving forward, incremental change is better than none. It’s time to work on incremental changes, while still holding to the vision of a better system eventually. Here are two significant changes that might be made without completely changing the entire system (yet!).
1) Every medical product or service must have a single price to the provider, regardless of who’s paying. Along with that, the actual cost must be available to the patient and the care provider. Currently, one payer, whether individual, employer, or insurance company, might pay ten times as much as another for the same service or product, and no one knows what anything costs at the time the decisions are made. This makes the cost of care impossible to determine, and care is made without any economic reality, which has led to the ridiculous situation of nearly 1 out of 5 dollars in the US economy going to keep us alive and unhealthy. Bring prices out into the open!
2) Create a system of medical records that stays with the patient, and is available to care providers only when and as directed by the patient. I personally have filled out “Health history” forms for at least ten difference care providers, and each one was entirely different, but is looking for basically the same information. Most patients are not able to understand a lot of medical language and jargon, nor are they capable of remembering details about their conditions, diagnoses and treatments, especially as years go by and yet details remain extremely relevant. Plus, when a provider goes out of business, my records with that provider will often be lost. A single database with a single format can be developed, rather than thousands of separate databases that don’t talk to each other, and relying primarily on the memory of individual patients.
Please begin pursuing these productive changes, while still working toward a far more equitable, effective, and less costly system for everyone, not just “those who qualify.”
I will help if I can.