Is Healthcare ‘Burning’ Yet? | The American Spectator

In July 1988, the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea exploded into fire. A worker on the rig, Andy Mochan, had to make a choice: stay and certainly die, or jump off the platform and probably die from the 100-foot drop or hypothermia in the freezing water. The burning platform has become a useful metaphor in the management of change, referring to what it takes to make people accept change, to reject the status quo. (P.S. Mr. Mochan jumped and survived.)

Is U.S. healthcare “burning” yet? Are people motivated to change from the system they know and intensely dislike (media accolades notwithstanding) to an unfamiliar one they fear because it is different?

Democrats want to double down on failed Obamacare with an extension of the subsidies. Republicans can’t seem to agree on healthcare, other than a distaste for Obamacare. With the midterm elections looming, Republicans came up with a plan, but they didn’t want to rock the boat. They worry the burning healthcare platform may not be hot enough to get the American public to move off and accept something new that would actually work.

Are they right? Probably, given the consistent media drumbeat of subsidy solution and how well the ACA has worked. Obamacare has been successful in reducing the uninsured rate. Unfortunately, it has also made medical care less accessible and more expensive. (RELATED: Trump’s Pivot Could Make Health Care Affordable Again)

Healthcare Is “Burning”

Evidence confirms U.S. healthcare is fully ablaze, taking down both American families and the nation. There is a worsening shortage of doctors. Some patients wait as long as 132 days to see a primary care doctor. Even a one-month delay in cancer diagnosis increases mortality. Patients in Medicaid and the VA system have died waiting in line for care that doesn’t come in time: death-by-queue. (RELATED: Subtext to Shutdown: Unaffordable Healthcare)

Death-by-queue is proof that the medical plank of the healthcare platform has turned into ash. The financial plank is also fully aflame. (RELATED: Wait Times for Medical Care Matter)

Last year, the U.S. spent more than double per capita what the United Kingdom (U.K.) spent, $12,555 versus $5,493. Nationally, healthcare expenditures consumed 17.8 percent of U.S. GDP compared to 10.9 percent for the U.K.

Government Solutions

Government solutions seem attractive to the public because a) that is what they are used to; and b) left-wing politicians and complicit mainstream media keep touting the success of big federal programs. Recall the grandiose promises for the ACA: “you will save $2,500,” “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” and “Americans will get all the care they deserve.” Though these promises failed to materialize, the media and Democrat politicians continue to deny the manifold failures of Obamacare and healthcare in general.

There is also the widely accepted myth that single payer — total government control of healthcare — works elsewhere, viz., the U.K., and should be adopted here. The reason Great Britain spends so much less than the U.S. is government rationing of medical care. Nearly 11 percent of the entire British population is on a waiting list for medical care: roughly one-third have been waiting 18 weeks or longer.

With regard to cost savings of government healthcare, even Bernie Sanders admitted that his single-payer plan, Medicare-for-All, could cost up to $40 trillion. For perspective, that amount is one-third of the combined GDP of all nations on planet Earth. (RELATED: Democrats Are Pushing for Government-Run Healthcare. The Time to Begin Fighting It Is Now.)

Another nail in the coffin of government healthcare, or so-called “universal healthcare,” is the well-documented seesaw effect. As the number of people enrolled in government-provided health insurance programs goes up, access to medical care goes down.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s 1981 Inaugural speech, “Government is not the fireman for the healthcare fire, government is the arsonist.” It is unclear whether the American public realizes how hot the healthcare fire is. Therefore, Americans may be reluctant to get off the platform — to change the healthcare system. (RELATED: Washington’s Reverse Midas Touch)

Jumping Into Icy Waters

President Trump hinted at the solution when he asked (referring to ACA subsidies), “Why not give the money directly to the people?” In a nutshell, that is the answer. Give control of healthcare spending to We the People. After all, it IS their money… and their lives!

Americans have been programmed for 83 years to think that “employer-sponsored health insurance” is their employer taking corporate monies to pay for employee policies. That is wrong.

Shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, Congress passed wage and price freezes. Washington needed control of the entire production capacity. To recruit and retain good workers when employers could not increase wages, Congress passed a law, the Stabilization Act of 1942, that allowed employers to pay tax-free for employees’ health insurance in lieu of paying their full wages. After the war, all the wage (and price) freezes were repealed except one: the tax-advantaged employer-sponsored health benefit.

Last year, the average amount employers paid for employees’ health insurance was $25,572. That money was sent to an insurance company instead of being paid to those who earned it.

Expand on President Trump’s offhand suggestion to 165 million Americans: “give them the money.” Americans need to jump from the burning healthcare platform into a sea of icy waters called Empower Patients. Instead of giving employees’ money to insurance companies that ration care and make huge profits at the expense of patient welfare, give workers’ money to the workers. After all, they earned it.

At the same time, expand HSAs so there are no limits — time or contributions — tax-free as long as the money is expended for medical purposes. Suddenly, there would be a huge market of most of the American workforce and their families with more than $4 trillion to spend on medical care and medical insurance. Sellers of both care and insurance would have to respond to consumers’ (i.e., patients) needs and wants instead of complying with government regulations. Prices would plummet due to competition. Service would become timely for the same reason. Instead of a four-month wait to see the doctor, it would be less than four days. Instead of $35,114 for hip replacement with insurance, the direct-pay charge would be $15,499.

To complete the picture, give unrestricted block grants to the states for Medicaid as intended by the original Medicaid law,

The cost of BURRDEN — federal bureaucracy, unnecessary rules and regulations, directives, enforcement, noncompliance activities — would fall to a tiny fraction of what was spent last year: $2.45 trillion wasted dollars. Doctors would regain professional satisfaction. Patients get what they want and need. Insurance would return to its original function: management of financial risk, not management of medical decision-making.

With empowered patients, the terrifying sea of icy waters turns out to be a warm, soothing hot tub.

READ MORE from Deane Waldman:

A Thanksgiving ‘What-If’ for American Healthcare

Subtext to Shutdown: Unaffordable Healthcare

Where Have All Our Healthcare Dollars Gone?

Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA, is professor emeritus of pediatrics, pathology, and decision science; former director of the Center for Healthcare Policy at Texas Public Policy Foundation; former director of the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange; and author of 14 books; his latest is Empower Patients — Two Doctors’ Cure for Healthcare. Follow him on X.com @DrDeaneW or contact him at [email protected].