This letter is in response to a recent Flashpoint letter by Dr. James E. Stephens of Brazil titled: ”Government created health care’s dysfunctional mess.”
In his letter, Dr. Stephens focused almost exclusively upon his perception that Medicare and Medicaid cause health care providers a lot of inconvenience and that they provide insufficient levels of reimbursement to doctors as evidence that our health care system is a dysfunctional mess. He referred to negative impacts upon incomes for doctors and hospitals associated with government-run health care programs over and over again. Dr. Stephens did not address the significant benefits to patients associated with Medicare and Medicaid. He also neglected to mention that, for many Americans, Medicare and Medicaid provide the only health care coverage available to them. How many retirees on Medicare would want to give up Medicare and return to private insurance coverage? Not any that I have ever met.
Dr. Stephens then dismissed the relatively short U.S. life expectancy, high infant mortality rates and high costs of health care even though these inexcusable shortcomings are very well documented. He apparently believes that our health care system is far superior to that provided in “socialist” nations. He asked “If we are so bad, why do people from all these countries want to come to the U.S. for the care they can’t get at home?” He then made the assertion that “We deliver the very best health care in the world and I’m proud to be a part of it!“
I agree with Dr. Stephens that the very best health care in the world is available in the U.S. However, it is available almost exclusively at university teaching hospitals like Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and top-flight facilities like the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Most Americans settle for health care that is of much lower quality and many go without health care altogether. The citizens of countries like France, who have socialized medicine, enjoy far better health care than the citizens of small towns in rural areas of the U.S. How many Parisians who are dissatisfied with their socialized health care system fly from Paris to New York and then on to Indianapolis, rent a car in Indy, and drive to Brazil, Ind., to consult with a doctor?
Interestingly, the health care provided at university medical clinics and teaching hospitals is frequently much less expensive than that provided by doctors in private practice and at for-profit hospitals, regardless of their locations. This is true, in part, because the doctors at university clinics and hospitals are faculty members who earn a relatively low fixed salary and have little incentive to order unnecessary treatments and procedures. For example, I consult with a doctor at Johns Hopkins University who is one of the top specialists in his field. (He, in fact, does see patients who fly in from France.) His charges are so low for an office visit and tests that, depending upon the extent of the services, the cost is significantly less for a visit to Johns Hopkins than for a visit to my local doctor even when including the cost of travel to and from Baltimore!
In theory, if every American was willing to invest the time and effort in order to carefully evaluate the quality of health care and its cost and then travel to obtain the best and least expensive health care, uncompetitive providers would be forced to improve quality and reduce costs or go out of business. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to find data on the quality of care provided by doctors. For example, data such as the percentage of surgical procedures performed by a particular doctor that have been successful is impossible to obtain. Likewise, it is very difficult to get estimates of the cost for a particular medical procedure from several providers. Health care providers don’t want this information to be made available to the public.
When you are really sick, you can’t very well go shopping around and wait for appendectomies to go on sale. When you are involved in an automobile accident and are taken, unconscious, to the emergency room, you can’ t take the time to determine if the doctor on duty received top-flight training and compare the prices charged with those at other emergency rooms. No, you get what is available at whatever price they charge. There really is no competition. This is one of the primary reasons why the private sector delivers health care of mediocre quality at high cost to many Americans. The mechanism based upon competition that keeps the quality of such consumer products as washing machines high and the cost low does not function with health care.
In my view, what we need is a universal health care system with a single payer. If everyone in America was enrolled in Medicare, we could ensure that every citizen gets affordable health care. Private health care insurers should be barred from making profits or eliminated. Under such a system, everyone could still choose his or her own doctor and hospital. However, payments to health care providers need to be made at set rates. The government must control prices as is done in virtually every other country in order to prevent the cost of health care from bankrupting us all. Even very conservative countries like Switzerland have imposed price controls on doctors and hospitals. Price controls and a ban on advertising also should be imposed on prescription drugs. A widely available and easily accessed database that would allow consumers to compare the quality of health care provided by doctors and hospitals should be developed in order to help foster competition.
These steps will improve the overall quality of U.S. health care and dramatically reduce the costs. The health care industry, which makes billions of dollars in profits every year, has fought any and all attempts to reform health care. They have done this by legally bribing and corrupting our elected representatives with campaign contributions and running advertisements filled with distortions and lies designed to scare voters, especially seniors, about health care reform. Unfortunately, they have already succeeded because the health care “reform” bills currently being debated in the House and Senate represent very little in the way of any real reform.
— John Allen
Terre Haute
Flashpoint
FLASHPOINT: Most health care is mediocre and expensive
- Flashpoint
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FLASHPOINT: Is this really the best we can do?
As you know if you pay attention to national affairs, the United States faces a perfect fiscal storm at the end of this year.
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FLASHPOINT:Bipartisan vs. Nonpartisan
During the primary election season there was much discussion regarding whether bipartisanship is a positive or negative attribute as it relates to the work of the United States Congress.
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FLASHPOINT: School libraries essential for reading achievement
If the situation were not so serious, it would be laughable. How can we improve reading achievement if we make it more difficult to put books in the hands of our children?
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FLASHPOINT: Lugar warns of 'unrelenting partisan mindset'
I would like to comment on the Senate race just concluded and the direction of American politics and the Republican Party.
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FLASHPOINT: Is money a problem in politics? Depends on where you sit
The role of money in politics needs to be better understood. Does it make the political system work better, or is it a problem — and if so, how much of one?
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FLASHPOINT: ‘Private’ clubs should be exempt from smoking bans
Over the past several years I have watched the Vigo County Council, followed by the City Council, and lastly the legislature of the great state of Indiana, wrestle with a smoking ban.
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FLASHPOINT: Downtown developers should share more details on project
With all of the opinions being expressed about the fate of the 500 block of Wabash Avenue, one element is sorely missing: the details.
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FLASHPOINT: Be careful when making accusations of ‘racism’
Perhaps, in a way that he doesn’t understand, Attorney General Eric Holder is correct in accusing America of being cowardly about discussing issues of race.
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FLASHPOINT: Historic hotel demolition was shameful day for Terre Haute
In an April 13 article on the potential demolition of historic buildings at Fifth and Wabash for student housing, Mike Ellis says, “I love the old historic buildings and have always had a passion to see them saved and restored. I was an opponent of seeing the Terre Haute House come down and the new hotel go up,” he said. “I have been proven wrong with what that would do for Terre Haute.”
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FLASHPOINT: Notes on saving structural history
There are several reasons why the historic buildings adjacent and west of Roger’s Jewelers should be saved, and why our downtown needs to protect and embrace our remaining historic fabric. First and foremost, rehab and reuse saves our historic buildings for future generations to experience, and the more architectural authenticity our downtown preserves, the more admired and “walkable” it will become.
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FLASHPOINT: Can anyone hear the call from Farrington's Grove
On Friday, March 30, a dear friend was brutally attacked in broad daylight in an alley in the neighborhood I grew up in, on the edge of Farrington’s Grove.
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FLASHPOINT: We have the power to co-exist without violence or prejudice
Innumerable forces in our lives, and throughout our society, seem to have convinced us that immediacy is best. We have to do it now. We have to have it now. We must go there now. We need it now!
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FLASHPOINT: Issue surrounding Florida shooting fueled by race
I am writing as a mother and as president of the Terre Haute branch of the NAACP because there may be some who wonder why the shooting of Trayvon Martin has created such an uproar: “What exactly is the issue?”
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FLASHPOINT: Indiana — open for business
With the 2012 legislative session in the rearview mirror, the two-year work of the 117th General Assembly elected in November of 2010 is complete.
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FLASHPOINT: The Constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act
On March 26, the United States Supreme Court will begin three days of hearings with six hours of oral argument on the constitutional challenge filed by Indiana and 25 other states against certain sections of the federal health care law: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as “Obamacare.” This historic lawsuit will explore the limits of the power of Congress under the U.S. Constitution.
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FLASHPOINT: The burning questions of ‘Fahrenheit 451’
“Remember the firemen are rarely necessary. The public stopped reading of its own accord.” — Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451”
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FLASHPOINT: Wonderful place to be during a very hard time
University Hospital (Indianapolis), part of IU Health Group, is a wonderful place to be if you are seriously ill.
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FLASHPOINT: America’s energy brings America jobs
The increase in fuel prices affects many aspects of our daily lives.
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FLASHPOINT: Change coming to the Indiana Statehouse
The General Assembly is about to undergo a major face-lift. I’m not talking about new construction. I’m talking about destruction — partisan destruction, in fact.
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FLASHPOINT: White House rejects Keystone XL: Sad day for U.S. workers
Imagine a project that could create 20,000 American jobs during construction, and as many as half a million longer-term positions.
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FLASHPOINT: Graduation rates are up; great news for Indiana
As Hoosiers celebrate the conclusion of a truly remarkable Super Bowl experience, there is even more good news that should fill us with pride.
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FLASHPOINT: Tech trail leading us into a dense, digital forest
It seems the Southwest Parke schools are the latest to play the laptop lottery game.
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FLASHPOINT: Republicans enable war on middle class, unions
About six years ago at the pinnacle of the Bush/GOP Dictatorship, I began telling you that the wealthy and Corporate America were laying the ground work to politically, financially and physically take over America.
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FLASHPOINT: Howey ignores truth to advance his agenda
Brian Howey’s Jan. 8 column about the U.S. Senate race proves once again that he will not allow the facts or journalistic ethics to get in the way of attacking Richard Mourdock and promoting his chosen candidate, Dick Lugar.
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FLASHPOINT: Putting fairness first
This time of year, with chords of Auld Lang Syne still ringing in our ears, it’s not uncommon or unnatural to think of days gone by as being more desirable than the era we live in today.
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FLASHPOINT: What really motivates right-to-work proposal?
You may have heard about the upcoming “right-to-work” legislation before our lawmakers in the next session of “law making.”
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FLASHPOINT: The right-to-work debate: ‘Devil at Our Doorstep’
As the 2012 Indiana Legislative Assembly convenes, January will represent a tipping point for all Hoosiers’ individual freedoms as politicians and Big Labor draw battle lines to determine if Indiana will become the 23rd right-to-work state.
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FLASHPOINT: State’s House Democrats will offer alternative for job creation
As the leaders of single-party control in state government outline their agendas for the 2012 session of the Indiana General Assembly, it is easy to be cynical about their intentions in the months to come.
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FLASHPOINT: Community colleges must lead way in reshaping higher education
In the 1970s, I began what was three decades in the automotive industry. ... Today, in my position as president of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, I see higher education confronted with some of these same challenges.
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FLASHPOINT: There’s little right about ‘right to work’ proposal
The danger contained in these three simple words – “Right to Work” — is that they sound so innocent.
- More Flashpoint Headlines
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FLASHPOINT: Is this really the best we can do?
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