Since President Barack Obama has signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the “Talking Heads” of the American media have been filling the airwaves with their disdain or approval of this, whether you like it or not, landmark legislation.
I am sure you can guess who is on what side.
It is in my opinion that there are more people in the political and public sphere who are against ObamaCare than are for it; an entire new faction of the Republican Party sprouted and gained control of the House due to the hatred for the health care bill.
Democrats have even come out saying that the bill is riddled with loopholes or does not go far enough. Both sides of the aisle have said that they did not even read the 2,000-page bill that was written by insurance and pharmaceutical companies, instead opting to vote on the party line.
There are quite a few parts that I highly agree with in the PPACA. Insurance companies must offer the same rates and can’t deny coverage to patients because of pre-existing conditions. Young adults who are under the age of 26 are also now allowed to stay on their parents health insurance while pushing the system towards supplying “quality, not quantity” health care.
I also agree that there needs to be a push for affordable preventative health-care like having regular check ups with a physician, which is the easiest way to stop illness and injury from occurring in the first place.
That being said, there are things that I do not agree with. First and foremost is the implementation of the Healthcare.gov website. It was a complete disaster and the Obama Administration needs to take full responsibility. The numbers of those who have signed up for the health care exchange are also not looking so great.
As of January 23, three-million people have signed up for the Healthcare Exchange, giving only two more months for the White House to reach its seven-million sign up goal.
Numbers have not been released on the sign-ups by age demographic, which is arguably the most crucial part. In order for premiums to stay low, the Obama Administration needs more young, healthy people to sign up than older, sicker Americans.
Will what I am about to say ruin the chances of winning an elected office in the future? Maybe.
I do not think the PPACA goes far enough. It is my belief that it is time for the United States of America to begin looking at its industrialized allies that have a single payer health insurance system, and follow suit.
Let me throw some statistics at you that were highlighted in a report from the International Federation of Health Plans. In France, the average cost of a daily hospital stay is $853; in the U.S., it is $4,287. An MRI costs an average of $335 in Britain, $363 in France and $1,121 in the U.S.
Vaginal childbirth costs, on average, total $2,641 in Britain, $3,541 in France and $9,775 in America. For those who want to go the Caesarean section delivery route, expect to be looking at a bill of $4,435 in Britain, $6,441 in France; but here in the U.S. it’ll cost $15,041.
To explain this large gap in child birthing costs between countries, one would assume that there would be a correlation of money spent would equal better results. Not true.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the US has the highest infant mortality per 1,000 live births out of the countries being discussed in this opinion. In fact, to make it sink in, the U.S. is forty-seventh in the world for infant mortality, where health care costs the most.
But how can this be fixed? I am not going to lie and say I have all the answers, and I am not going to say my answers would work without speed bumps. We shouldn’t be afraid to let the evidence of our past help us shape the future; like knowing that health care costs drain the public purse in this nation.
For those who may say that universal health care is un-American and that only a free market and competition will bring down costs, you need to realize that both of these are false.
Competition has yet to prove that it brings down cost, and we already have a single-payer healthcare system for Americans over 65 called Medicare. Medicare has proven to have lower costs and lower overhead. If everyone in the U.S. was to suddenly be put on Medicare, the savings would move the federal budget from a deficit to a surplus.
Another fix would allow the Federal Government to negotiate wholesale prices of medication; something Congress forbade under President Bush’s Medicare Part D program.
An additional remedy that I suggest is the introduction of price caps on certain procedures. Including price caps would make sure that an appendectomy does not cost between $8,156 and $29,426 depending on what hospital you happen to be closest to when this surgery is needed.
The statistics show that the countries that implement single payer health insurance spend less. America has, in the past, looked around the world, witnessed how countries worked and told ourselves: “We can do better.”
And in my opinion, we can.
Zak Koehler can be contacted at zkoehler@keene-equinox.com