Mayo Clinic president and CEO Denis Cortese, M.D., will be the featured guest on a C-SPAN call-in program on Friday, March 21, 2008. The 30-minute program, which coincides with Dr. Cortese’s speech at the National Press Club later in the day, begins at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
As with his National Press Club speech, Dr. Cortese will focus on health reform and the recommendations from last week’s National Symposium on Health Care Reform. Tune to C-SPAN Friday morning and call with your questions.
3 Comments
I just saw Dr. Cortese on C-Span. I sent them a eMail message which was not used. I append it below together with my usual arguments concerning single payer systems.
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Dr.Cortese seriously misrepresents the idea of choice in other countries. The point is they have efficient (keyword) single payer systems that everyone pays for. Like education in this country, if you want to pay for an _additional_ private service, you can do. We need an efficient system which is _available_ to every one, like all these countries provide.
Let me also point out that many of the really difficult problems Dr.Cortese wants to solve (reward for value, etc.) can actually be better handled under a single payer system. In any case they are really hard, so why not go after the low hanging friut which is how health insurance is paid.
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Let’s forget the immorality of the uninsured that lets poor people die. Forget the burden on businesses that make them less competitive. Just consider health care financing as a business decision. Develop statistics for measuring how we are doing. Look at the competitors (other countries). Look at their cost. If you are honest, you will become an advocate of a single payer system. Here are some facts. They can be checked at http://www.pnhp.org.
If you look at the 13 wealthiest countries and rank them according to the 16 basic public health statistics, the US ranks 12th or 13th in each one. Yet, yet we spend 2.5 TIMES as much per person as the average of these countries. Other countries get much better health care at much lower cost. (As a sanity check, WHO ranked the US 37th in the world in healthcare, just above Slovenia, but below Costa Rica.) All of these other 12 countries use some form of single payer system. Of course, they have some problems, but most of these are because they are not spending enough. We would not have those problems. In spite of all these so-called problems, they get better care. Also Medicare is a single payer system, and it is one of the most popular programs in the history of our country. The plan I like simply gives Medicare (without limitations, co-pays or deductions and with complete perscription coverage) to everyone. We could do this without spending any more than we are now.
The reason for this is that we waste at least $200 Billion a year on excess paperwork by physicians and at least $100 Billion a year on high overhead (15% vs. 1.3% for Canadians) of private insurance. Look here is a simplified example of what we are doing.
Suppose you have 100 dollars to give to 10 people. You could give $10 to each person. Alternatively, you could develop criteria that determine who is deserving, and then investigate each person. You might find that according to your criteria, only 5 people deserve the money. You spent, however $75, on your investigations, so now you can only give $5 to the 5 deserving ones. We spend much too much money denying people health care.
The basic problem is that the rules are made by private insurance companies whose only goal is to make money, not efficiency or good health care. If they can save a buck by having a physician fill out a 40 page form, they will do so.
What about choice? I am 69 years old and retired. During my career I had 5 HMO’s and 5 indemnity health plans. I have much more freedom of choice under Medicare than I had under any of the private insurance plans. I have no more referrals, no more in plan - out of plan nonsense. As for choice of insurance plan, why would anyone want choice if everyone had a plan that covered everything? In any case, you could still have private insurance for those who can afford it as most European countries still do.
Many people’s main opposition to a single payer system is that it is pie-in–the-sky; we will never get it through. Maybe so. That’s what they said about Social Security and Medicare. One thing is for sure. We will never get a rational health care system if we do not try.
I find Dr. Cortese report on the right track in health care. I am a consumer and advocate for access to quality to health care. His “insurance for all” at least sets a foundation for other stakeholders to address the issue. With the new Presidential election 2008 upcoming, health care is the hot topic but finally, finally society is being made aware of the “truths” about health care. Awareness is a campaign that was started years ago, it is not until the Presidential election that it finally took hold, especially the “reward for value”. Consumers grasp onto this concept.
I think Dr. Cortese is completely on target. The Mayo Health Policy Conference was one of the most refreshing I have attended in years. There is no health care system in this country, as the fractured system daily shows from my friends and colleagues horror stories caring for aging parents in the same town or long distance.
The Mayo voice is a new and refreshing one that will resonate well with those of us in the middle who think that the single payer vs. marketplace debate should be put to rest.
Thanks to the Mayo fresh voice and vision.
Kathleen O’Connor
CodeBlueNow!