OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS IS BROKEN, AND IT'S GETTING WORSE FOR DECADES, HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AND PROGRESSIVE POLITICIANS HAVE SOUGHT UNIVERSIAL HEALTH CARE, BUT PROPOSALS HAVE LANGUISHED
Early in his career Hiatt worked with Nobel Prize laureates in unlocking the secrets of cellular biology and years later became dean of the
The doctor was one of the first to call out the inequities in American health care five decades ago with his book, "
"I am particularly anxious to reach those who are so callous as to accept the prospect of two-class medicine in America," he told an interviewer, lamenting that in the
But just like those who came before and after him, his protestations have continued to go unheeded. Our entrenched profit-driven health care and the politicians beholden to it have succeeded in maintaining the status quo.
Health care reformers have come close a couple of times in recent years.
Meanwhile, the cost of American health care continues to skyrocket.
In 1962, health care costs represented 5% of the
Certainly, medical advances, new technological procedures and the cost of drugs are major contributors to the higher costs, but the biggest problem lies in how we pay for health care. The private for-profit insurance apparatus accounts for close to 20% of the nation's health care bill.
What's astonishing is that there's little effort among insurance companies to help get these costs under control. In fact, it's the opposite. They're teaming up with private equity investors on finding ways to cut payouts and boost profits even further.
Earlier this month, a New York Times investigation found that while the insurance industry continues to blame private equity-owned hospitals and physician groups for exorbitant billing that drives up health care costs, a new tool developed with massive private equity funding is helping insurers make billions of dollars by shifting more of the costs to patients.
The tool, called Data iSight, the
Another investigation has revealed that another high-tech tool called MultiPlan is being used by the insurance industry to limit out-of-network reimbursements, again shifting astronomical medical bills to the unwary patient.
All of which should be considered an unconscionable, if not fraudulent, business practices. But our politicians refuse to act and, in fact, have opened the doors further to private insurers, allowing them to gain a foothold in government-run Medicare with the popular but questionable Medicare Advantage plans.
It's time that we reform what has become nothing more than a scam on the American people. Let's get the greed and designed mysteriousness out of this alleged system.
The answer, as
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