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The New England Journal of Medicine published a 1,250 word piece on the future of healthcare reform, worth a read and certainly worthy of some editing. Obstacles to repealing Obamacare are, as mentioned in this perspective piece, significant, yet it needs to happen. There is hope in the absence of a Nonseverability Clause will save the day, yet it may not be sufficient.  Imagine receiving a surgically implanted artificial joint that according to current estimates will likely last you ten to fifteen years. Consider the the fear of having to have surgery, and the pain and discomfort of post surgical rehabilitation, and the prospects that it will take 6 to 12 weeks to fully recover. Now consider this: how would you feel to learn the week following surgery that the FDA has just approved a new joint with half the recovery time and that will last twice as long. The medical device industry takes considerable financial risks to make certain that their products improve in performance every day and in every way. They work to make them less expensive, more dependable, smaller, with surgeries that are less invasive and more effective. Pacemakers which were once the size of a hockey puck, are now the size of a teaspoon. Artificial hips are easier to install, and last twice as long as did not long ago. The impact of the medical device industry has been a hallmark of healthcare improvement without which we are eminently poorer, and die much younger. Healthcare accounted for 56% of labor growth in the US following the end of the previous recession in 2001 through 2008, the single largest contributor to that recovery. In healthcare, we have a competitive advantage, we’re really good at it and getting better every day; in no small measure, due to the medical device industry seeking to bring to healthcare providers innovative tools to help patients get better and go home. Here is an interesting introduction to a study into the effects of Healthcare Reform on the medical device industry. If you’re getting older, or know anyone who is, penalizing the Medical Device Industry for being successful is important to you in ways you may never understand. Tom The argument goes that the American healthcare system and it’s costs impose a productivity impediment on American businesses. As comforting as this might be for those who enjoy the novelty of messing with things, especially when they are immune from their consequences, it’s not true. John R. Graham of the Pacific Research Institute has put together an outstanding little piece that seeks to put this complaint at rest with in : American Health Care and American Productivity: An International Comparison. Before taking another sip of the Obamacare Kool-Aid, give this piece a few minutes of your time, it could save your life. How about starting a company with the following constraints: you don’t have a product to sell but you know people who do, you don’t like competition, and particularly don’t like selling, so you want your product to be required. You don’t want the hassle of dealing with share holders, or quarterly reports or demanding customers, you just want money to come into your company on a regular basis, and manage expenditures as you desire. If this sounds inviting to you, then consider starting a union. A union offers all these benefits and much more. This piece in the Wall Street Journal shows just how unions have spent their money. So think about it a while; with the government taking over healthcare (which they are) soon you can expect that all of those upon whom you depend for your care will themselves be unionized. You get the benefit of being treated by those with seniority over ability, and they too will be free to support politicians who best support the needs of the provider over the needs of the patient. Feeling better? A quick read of an article in USA Today about Medicaid physician compensation for pediatric flu shots would likely lead you to quickly presume that reimbursement should be higher if we want more children being vaccinated. However, this only works if one buys the notion that either a child goes to a physician for a flu shot, or they don’t get one at all. What if going to the physician office for a flu shot were an elective, which it is, does the analysis still apply? What if there are less expensive ways to make flu shots available to Medicaid patients? Of course there are other places where patients can get immunizations without going to a physician, and perhaps this is the point. In order to make health care work for everyone, we need to critically review how healthcare is currently distributed. Go to a pharmacy and see all the packaging and work that goes into filling a prescription, even for the most benign medications. Much of these are self-inflected costs that produce minimal benefit in regard to patients outcomes. Time to get creative. |
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