Saturday, October 24, 2009
We can't afford to fail on health care reform
From the RoundTable blog
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Tom Joyce
Joyce, of Hardy, is a retired information technology office director for the federal government.
We must reform health care and health insurance in America to increase the length of life and improve the quality of life in America and to prevent the collapse of our economy that will surely happen if we fail to act. The clock is ticking.
The current health care system in the United States for the uninsured is unworthy of this great nation. In the U.S., the world's richest country, many sick people who can't pay stay sick or die.
According to the Institute of Medicine, this nation's premier organization for studying ongoing health care results for our citizens, uninsured adults in the United States are more likely to die an early death than insured adults. And, uninsured adults are more likely than insured adults to live with poor health, such as neurological impairment after a stroke, advanced stage cancer due to late diagnosis, significantly worse blood sugar control for diabetes and inadequate blood pressure control.
The current U.S. health insurance system is bankrupting families, businesses and the government. It costs insured Americans $932 per year to cover the uninsured. More than 700,000 Americans declare bankruptcy each year due to unaffordable medical costs. Businesses, particularly small businesses, drop health insurance for their employees because it is unaffordable. Medicare, the U.S. government health care program for seniors, will be bankrupt in about eight years.
The recent debate over Medicare illustrates the dilemma health care reformers face. According to the 2009 annual report of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees, the major reasons for Medicare's upcoming bankruptcy are the aging of our population as more baby boomers become entitled to Medicare, the greater health care needs of an aging population and the fact that the cost of health care is increasing three times faster than inflation in the rest of the economy.
To begin to address Medicare's looming disaster, the president proposed reducing Medicare expenditures by approximately $500 billion over the next 10 years. Opponents of reform have come out strongly against reducing Medicare spending. These opponents also oppose increasing the Medicare tax to pay for Medicare spending. And, they are against increasing the federal deficit to pay for Medicare spending. What's left is Medicare's bankruptcy in eight years. The clock is ticking.
The clock is ticking for our economy as well. At about the same time that Medicare is expected to go bankrupt, health care will have continued gobbling up our economy, accounting for one out of every $5 spent, compared to one out of every $6 in 2007. Without reform, health care will continue devouring our economy. Any dollar spent on health care is a dollar not available for any other private or public purpose.
There are those who say we cannot afford to reform health care now. They say it's too expensive when the federal government faces a $9 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. They are wrong.
Every year we delay reform increases the cost to our government and the economy. The federal deficit will grow ever larger. According to the Medicare Trustees' report, each year we fail to reform Medicare the cost in unfunded liabilities grows, requiring greater benefit cuts and/or revenue increases when ultimately we do reform it as we must to avoid its bankruptcy.
As for the U.S. economy, without reform, health care's share of our economy will continue its inexorable climb, ultimately endangering our national security itself.
