Last week, a deeply divided US Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s health care initiative, the Affordable [Health] Care Act. But many are applauding this decision for the wrong reasons.
LAST week, a deeply divided US Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s health care initiative, the Affordable [Health] Care Act. But many are applauding this decision for the wrong reasons.
They are correct that the Obama health care reforms will address some fundamental weaknesses in our health system, such as the refusal of insurance companies to cover the deeply ill. But what both sides have not focused on is the high future costs of accepting a health care system that is no longer affordable or helpful to the vast majority of Americans, including the middle-class.
Today, per capita spending on health care in the U.S. is almost three times higher than that in Japan (over $8,000 in the US versus $2,700 in Japan). And, the cost of health care in the US is twice that in France, Germany and Canada. Yet, there are few, if any, tangible benefits despite these far higher expenditures. The US is close to last among developed countries in life expectancy and we have the highest infant mortality rate among developed nations. Further, every year, a higher percentage of American women die in childbirth than in any other developed nation in the world.
Within a few years, one in every five dollars of our gross domestic product will be spent in health care. Within a generation it is likely to be more than one in four dollars. (In 2014, for example, it is projected that health care costs will rise by 7.4 percent or three times the predicted inflation rate.)
The problem, which neither party has discussed, is that the US has an unrealistic and unsustainable health care system built around increasingly expensive fee-for-service doctors and drug company monopolies.
Every year, we spend $150 billion more for prescription drugs than we have to. The government could, for example, require every drug company to offer to all US residents prescription drugs at the lowest prices available in France, Germany, Great Britain and Canada. It could cut our prescription drug costs from over $300 billion a year to $150 billion a year and save $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
Everyone recognizes that the cost of hospital care for a day exceeds the discretionary income of an average family for a year. Yet, almost no attention is given to encouraging the development of local nonprofit clinics or permitting for-profit chains like Walgreens to effectively break the hospital monopoly through easily accessible and affordable clinics in every neighborhood.
The doctors’ fee-for-service monopoly, which is estimated to cost the US as much as $500 billion a year in excessive health care costs, can be remedied. Empower our nurses to provide comparable quality services in a broad range of areas that involve approximately 95 percent of all medical contacts and treatments. As we all know, being treated for a common cold does not require five or more years of postgraduate medical training.
The US could cut its medical costs by half a billion dollars or more annually just by making more effective use of our present nurses, particularly if we provide them with six months to a year of specialized training. This would enable most Americans to rarely require a doctor or $10,000-a-day hospital visits. Appropriately licensed nurses, for example, should be able to oversee Walgreens for-profit clinics or any nonprofit clinic under special state and federal licensing and regulatory requirements.
Unfortunately, not one provision in the Administration’s Affordable [Health] Care Act will reduce long-term costs. And, there appears to be very little in the Act that will increase the quality of health care in a fashion that will enable us to one day have an infant mortality rate as low as that in most European nations or our Canadian neighbor, or to have life expectancies equivalent to those in most European countries and Japan.
What Can the Asian American Community Do?
The Asian American community of 18 million is in a unique position to influence the future of healthcare in the US.
Firstly, we are the only minority group whose political choices are being competitively sought by both presidential candidates.
Secondly, we have a higher percentage of nurses and other “outside the box” medical professionals than any other group in the country.
This combination should be the basis for a nonpartisan Asian American Labor Day White Paper presented to both presidential candidates so that it can be debated across the country.
Our organization is committed to providing these health care debate opportunities in swing states, such as Nevada, Michigan and Virginia and, of course, in the state with the largest Asian American population, California.
It is not too late to truly reform our health care system in order to increase its quality and affordability.
They are correct that the Obama health care reforms will address some fundamental weaknesses in our health system, such as the refusal of insurance companies to cover the deeply ill. But what both sides have not focused on is the high future costs of accepting a health care system that is no longer affordable or helpful to the vast majority of Americans, including the middle-class.
Today, per capita spending on health care in the U.S. is almost three times higher than that in Japan (over $8,000 in the US versus $2,700 in Japan). And, the cost of health care in the US is twice that in France, Germany and Canada. Yet, there are few, if any, tangible benefits despite these far higher expenditures. The US is close to last among developed countries in life expectancy and we have the highest infant mortality rate among developed nations. Further, every year, a higher percentage of American women die in childbirth than in any other developed nation in the world.
Within a few years, one in every five dollars of our gross domestic product will be spent in health care. Within a generation it is likely to be more than one in four dollars. (In 2014, for example, it is projected that health care costs will rise by 7.4 percent or three times the predicted inflation rate.)
The problem, which neither party has discussed, is that the US has an unrealistic and unsustainable health care system built around increasingly expensive fee-for-service doctors and drug company monopolies.
Every year, we spend $150 billion more for prescription drugs than we have to. The government could, for example, require every drug company to offer to all US residents prescription drugs at the lowest prices available in France, Germany, Great Britain and Canada. It could cut our prescription drug costs from over $300 billion a year to $150 billion a year and save $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
Everyone recognizes that the cost of hospital care for a day exceeds the discretionary income of an average family for a year. Yet, almost no attention is given to encouraging the development of local nonprofit clinics or permitting for-profit chains like Walgreens to effectively break the hospital monopoly through easily accessible and affordable clinics in every neighborhood.
The doctors’ fee-for-service monopoly, which is estimated to cost the US as much as $500 billion a year in excessive health care costs, can be remedied. Empower our nurses to provide comparable quality services in a broad range of areas that involve approximately 95 percent of all medical contacts and treatments. As we all know, being treated for a common cold does not require five or more years of postgraduate medical training.
The US could cut its medical costs by half a billion dollars or more annually just by making more effective use of our present nurses, particularly if we provide them with six months to a year of specialized training. This would enable most Americans to rarely require a doctor or $10,000-a-day hospital visits. Appropriately licensed nurses, for example, should be able to oversee Walgreens for-profit clinics or any nonprofit clinic under special state and federal licensing and regulatory requirements.
Unfortunately, not one provision in the Administration’s Affordable [Health] Care Act will reduce long-term costs. And, there appears to be very little in the Act that will increase the quality of health care in a fashion that will enable us to one day have an infant mortality rate as low as that in most European nations or our Canadian neighbor, or to have life expectancies equivalent to those in most European countries and Japan.
What Can the Asian American Community Do?
The Asian American community of 18 million is in a unique position to influence the future of healthcare in the US.
Firstly, we are the only minority group whose political choices are being competitively sought by both presidential candidates.
Secondly, we have a higher percentage of nurses and other “outside the box” medical professionals than any other group in the country.
This combination should be the basis for a nonpartisan Asian American Labor Day White Paper presented to both presidential candidates so that it can be debated across the country.
Our organization is committed to providing these health care debate opportunities in swing states, such as Nevada, Michigan and Virginia and, of course, in the state with the largest Asian American population, California.
It is not too late to truly reform our health care system in order to increase its quality and affordability.
