US Healthcare leadership – an oxymoron?
As small business people and baby boomers, we are all concerned about the future of healthcare (or rather, healthcare costs and insurance) in the U.S.
Miki Saxon has written a good post about this on her Leadership Turn blog. She is going to be posting comments from business people and people in the health industry.
My opinion: There are three groups of people in the US, in relation to health care. The first group is the people who have so much money they don’t need to worry about the cost of health care. The second group is the people who have insurance, and they don’t worry too much about the cost of health care. The third group is the people without insurance; they worry a lot about the cost of health care.
The US has the greatest healthcare system in the world, for those who can afford it. That is, those with enough money that they don’t need insurance, and those who have insurance. For those without insurance (a lot of people), the healthcare system doesn’t give them what they need – an opportunity to get the outstanding medical care that the other two groups get.
We all say that we don’t want the healthcare system in Canada, where you get in line for simple surgery and months later you’re still waiting. And we all say we want all the tests and procedures we have a “right” to get, but those things cost money.
Increasing taxes on businesses is not the answer. Those businesses that already have insurance plans for employees are already paying the cost; why make them pay additional taxes? If you make small businesses either get insurance for employees or pay a tax, they will either (1) get rid of all their employees, (2) increase prices to pay the tax/insurance, or (3) go out of business. They can’t afford to just pay the additional costs.
Do I know what the answer is? Nope, but I’m sure it isn’t going to help to raise taxes. The cost of health care for Americans is a very complex problem, and it isn’t going to be fixed with simplistic solutions.
What do you think? Comment here or on Leadership Turn.
1 Comment
Jean, The last numbers I saw said that there were 42 million uninsured and another 16 million under insured. In my post Tuesday I offer some numbers regarding who is NOT paying taxes.
As to waiting, a friend of mine had a mammogram and the POSITIVE results were MAILED to her and include a second appointment a MONTH later to confirm the diagnosis. Instead of waiting, she went someplace else and paid for another one which was also positive. She had immediate surgery. All of that happened BEFORE the date she’d been given for the follow-up by her HMO. Fortunately she could pay.
But I’m very tired of everybody saying what great healthcare we have here. Many of the people who have the money are flying overseas for their procedures. Worse, I saw statistics that said that more than 50% of hospital-related infections were a result of personnel, especially doctors, not washing their hands. Kaiser has signs up in patients telling staff to wash their hands, but my friend said that when her mother was there recently she had to remind them to wash more than once.