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Any assessment of today’s health care system could best be described as playing the old party game “hot potato.” For those not old enough to recall the rules, it involved multiple players arranged in a circle passing an object to the next person while music was playing. When it stopped, the person holding the hot potato loses, and is thus eliminated. In the present game of health care reform, no one is really talking about fixing the underlying problems. Instead, they want to “tweak” certain parts so the game continues and the hot potato gets tossed along to another generation. Somehow, the common American will be left holding the bag again.

Many industry experts believe the root cause of today’s health care crisis is that market incentives are not aligned. Instead of competitive forces bringing about change and innovation to lower costs and improve the quality of care, the current health structure produces cost shifting, inexcusable medical errors, soaring utilization, and government intervention. Problems and skyrocketing costs get passed from generation to generation in an upward spiral of complication. This process is dooming future generations of Americans.

“If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”
~ Thomas Paine

In decades past, many attempts have been made to control inflationary health care pressures. Wage and price controls were instituted in the 1970’s; Voluntary restraints were tried in the 1980’s; Managed-care was initially thought to be our savior in the 1990’s. All failed because they proved to be little more than foolish financial engineering. Now the Obama administration, along with House and Senate leaders, are proposing new government legislation aimed at fixing the system.

However, unless we correct the misaligned economic incentives, the financial burden on our country will continue. All sides (insurance companies, consumers and government) are out of balance. For example, the attitude of most health insurance companies needs to change. Ask any of their executives how long a typical insured stays with their company and they will likely snap a figure off the top of their head. To them, customers are transitory and simply move onto the next carrier in a few short years. This reduces their incentive to invest time, effort, and money to encourage healthy lifestyles or to build a long-term client relationship.

Conversely, the same broken incentives apply on the consumer side. Ask any American how they would want their health benefits to work and the response might be, “I want it to pay 100% of everything all the time.” As it is, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that in 2007 employers paid nearly 73% of their employees’ health insurance premiums. First-dollar insurance coverage and employer funded plans have encouraged the overuse of health care services. Over time, people have become accustomed to the small amount they pay out of pocket while the actual costs for care are ignored. Noted MIT economist Amy Finkelstien has studied how America’s third-party insurance system has impacted the market and become the driving force behind our health care spending trends.

Government officials involved in drafting the new health care legislation have yet to discuss their failures. A glaring case in point is the government’s lack of accountability for their past health care cost projections. For example, in 1966 Medicare expenditures were $3 billion. In that same year, the House Ways and Means Committee had projected that costs would rise to $12 billion by 1990. However, ACTUAL Medicare spending in 1990 was $107 billion. That is a whopping miscalculation by 791%!

Although everyone agrees that some health care restructuring is needed, and support remains high for change, Americans should not allow for a redesigned system to emerge that is as bad as the existing one (or worse). Individuals should contact their representatives in Washington DC, in order to help shape the final health care bill. President Obama has put “shared sacrifice” on the table and that is what all parities should accept to ensure that the health care hot potato game ends. This will allow for meaningful market reforms to improve quality, bring about innovation, and reduce long-term costs.

The business world methodically concentrates on numbers, creating revenue, and attracting new clients. When health care is your business, you should remember to take a step back from the “time to make the donuts” mentality and consider the other side of your company (i.e., the human side). Although the iconic Dunkin’ Donuts advertisement featuring Fred the Baker was a catchy way to sell a morning treat with your coffee, too much of this “by the numbers” assembly line attitude permeates our current health care system. If President Obama and the Democratic leaders in the United States House and Senate proceed with their plans, government could simply be replacing the business bean counters and creating new areas of patient concern.

Day after day, we at Peoples Health Insurance focus on the importance of health care and how to reach millions of uninsured Floridians. We take pride in our easy to use Web site and feel confident that the quality of information you will find is an asset when searching for a Florida Health Insurance quote. However, I have recently found myself looking at the other side of the insurance industry. That is, a noticeably growing number of people have become ill and are in the throws of a life changing medical development. As an aging Baby Boomer myself, I am certain that others have made this observation. More troublesome, are the ghoulish stories featuring the icons of our era (like Farrah Fawcett) as headliners on the evening news retorting the facts of their deadly condition. This only serves to heighten our anxiety about our own mortality.

The grim reality is that even larger-than-life Hollywood heavyweights, who somehow appear to be untouchable, are subject to the same ailments that all Americans face. Their glamorously led lifestyles and financial success is not enough to ward off real, serious, and fatal illnesses such as cancer. Paul Newman for example died in September of 2008 after a long battle with cancer; Patrick Swayze is currently fighting pancreatic cancer; more recently, Farrah Fawcett has appeared in the media with updates on her brush with anal cancer, which has brought new attention to this rarely discussed disease.

As we all know, purchasing a Florida Medical Insurance plan is designed to defray the financial costs of fighting disease and illness. For wealthy celebrities, they are blessed with a certain amount of added financial backing that can be used to enhance their treatment, especially in the event that their health insurance policy contains coverage gaps. For those of us who are mere mortals, the reality of a serious illness would mean financial devastation without some form of quality coverage. Nevertheless, no matter whom you are or your status in the world, at some point you will realize that you can no longer extend your life any farther. As I watch Farrah Fawcett struggle, I cannot seem to clear this thought from my mind.

Sickness and dying are subjects that most Americans would rather not discuss. After all, we get up in the morning and look forward to the day. Just as easy, we could consider that same day as just one closer to our own demise! As the health care debates continues to rage in Washington, DC, we should demand that our legislators and business leaders remember what they are debating; the future of an industry that touches the lives of everyone in our country. Somehow, we should all strive to keep the human side of the debate on the table as we carve up the numbers to determine who wins and who loses in the warfare called health care reform.