Economy Can’t Recover Without Health Care Reform

As our nation begins a new era with this new president and redefined Congress, most of us are hoping that answers to the problems our nation faces will quickly emerge. Few of us are so naïve as to think there will be easy answers, or even a quick turnaround. But change can bring hope, and I doubt that, whatever side of the political aisle a person leans toward, many would deny that our nation faces significant problems. We all hope for a better future for our country.

It's no secret that a large part of the troubled economic situation is massive debt incurred by people with health problems, even those with health insurance. If all of this debt resulted in fantastic health outcomes, perhaps there would be some justification. However, according to The World Health Organization's (WHO) ranking of the world's health systems (in 2000, the last statistics available), the United State's global rank is 37 overall and 72 in health performance. Before I looked for the statistics, I was well aware that our ranking wasn't great, but I was shocked by the numbers. This ranking for our country of great brains and great resources is, in my opinion, unacceptable. It's stark evidence that our health care system is broken.

I've written about our health system on this site several times, but in "Back Page News: The Financial Burden of Healthcare in America," which I wrote in December of 2006, I discussed how I, along with my youngest son who has multiple health issues, try to cope with the cost of health care. It's hard. The expense has been overwhelming, even with insurance. Will this problem be resolved immediately? Obviously not.

However, I choose to believe that fresh ideas, tempered with the wisdom of historical perspective, will help us move forward in a positive manner. The economy in general must be fixed. I don't believe that we will really come out of this recession with healthy bank accounts, or even enough jobs for our workers, until our health system is on the road to recovery, whatever form that takes. The particular path needed to reform our health system will be determined by Republicans, Independents and Democrats working together for the good of the country, not by partisan ideology.

Some changes will come from new technology, such as the ability to make health records accessible throughout the system by digitizing them, thus saving money, time and even lives by eliminating bulky, paper-file transfers across different health networks. 

Some improvement, I hope, will come for more traditional ideas such as getting back to family doctors and educating more geriatricians to care for the aging population. Because these kinds of physicians generally value quality of life over quantity and will continue to be in increasing demand, they need to be compensated as well as doctors who perform "procedures," such as surgeons. At this time, they are not, and we have far too few of them.