Our health care system is in crisis.
47 million citizens have no health insurance. An untold number of citizens with insurance quickly find themselves underinsured if they must use their insurance. Together, these two groups represent a population at increased risk of reduced health status, increased mortality and financial devastation.
The cost of health care continues to rise. Left unchecked, the rising cost of health care will increase our national budget deficit, reduce our ability to compete economically in the global marketplace and make health care unaffordable for more and more citizens.
Our current health care system is both unfair and unsustainable.
The vast majority of the civilized, developed nations of the world consider health care an essential human right. This list includes Canada, France, Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Taiwan, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The United States is unique among all the industrialized nations of the world in that it does not provide universal health care to its citizens.
As health care reform debate continues, the path to a solution grows murky; the real issues obscured by rhetoric, misinformation and downright fear-mongering. We have been overwhelmed with details (perhaps intentionally) – details that tend to obscure the core issues.
One key question before each and every citizen of the United States is clear: “What does the United States consider health care – a market commodity or a basic human right?” The acceptable solutions become radically different once we decide the answer to this key question.
As a health care provider, I believe that the United States needs to join the vast majority of the developed world and recognize that health care is an essential human right.
I believe that the United States needs to enact real, meaningful health care reform that moves toward achieving a goal of universal coverage of each and every citizen of the United States.
I have listened to the arguments that would portray “good health” as merely a lifestyle choice that is within the grasp of each and every individual – if only we exercised the appropriate personal responsibility. But, that is an illusion. While personal responsibility indeed plays a role in improving one’s chances of leading a healthy life, the reality is that none of us can predict if and when we will be stricken – through no fault of our own – with an unforeseen injury or illness that can devastate us and our families. We all stand to benefit from the security of knowing that we will have health care when we need it.
While there may be many ways to achieve meaningful reform, controlling the cost of health care must be a centerpiece of any effective strategy that aims to create a sustainable health care system. Health care decisions must be made based on scientific evidence. Health care cannot continue to be perceived as a market commodity that is rationed by purchasing power and driven by the perverse incentives that characterize the current broken system. Health care is a public good and the health care delivery system must be retooled to recognize and reflect the critical role that health care plays in the security and well being of our society.
I believe that our country will be more productive, our businesses stronger and all of our futures brighter if every citizen is secure in knowing that he or she has access to quality and affordable health care and will not be financially devastated by a medical calamity beyond our control.
I am dismayed by the misinformation and fear tactics that have been used by those who stand to benefit from a continuation of the status quo – a health care system driven by the profit motive rather than the humanistic ideals of compassion and professional obligation. The rhetoric is designed to confuse and cloud the core decision that faces our country today as we call the question: “Will we join the rest of the civilized world and work together to provide all of our citizens health care security as a right of citizenship – or not?”
Randale C. Sechrest, MD