Eduardo
Porter, in his New York Times article, “Health Care and Profits, A Poor Mix,”
poses the question that serves as the “elephant in the room” in most
discussions of healthcare delivery systems. That is whether a for-profit system can fairly and,
therefore, adequately serve the needs of its population.
The
United States relies on private sector businesses to provide care and
monitoring of individual health through hospitals, HMO’s, and integrated
delivery systems. Porter points
out that despite the enthusiasm of hospital stakeholders to applaud creative
profit-based initiatives employed by these institutions, the patients served
may not be reaping so much benefit.
One study published in the Rand Journal of Economics found that
patient mortality rates spiked when nonprofit hospitals switched to becoming
profit-based.
Other
countries, such as Britain and France, are providing government-led healthcare
systems at much lower costs to their GDP.
The U.S. leads all 34 member nations in the OCED (Organization for
Cooperation and Economic Development) in spending on healthcare with 17% of GDP. The Netherlands, its closest
competitor, comes in at 12%. Clearly, the primary privatization of the healthcare industry
is costing our country much more than other developed countries.
With
the passing of the ACA (Affordable Care Act of 2010), the U.S. will begin to
focus on a broader social justice-based system. This new system will create access to healthcare for
millions of Americans of all socioeconomic levels at a cost which will level the
playing field for those who either pay too much for private insurance via
demand-side rationing, or who are limited to Medicare and Medicaid providers
which create a stigma in our society.
Adopting a stronger social justice-based model in the U.S. will also
give the United States the advantage of removing some of the conflict of
interest present when you put big business in charge of human rights. For this, I applaud the Congress for
their willingness to step forward toward a kinder, gentler approach for all
populations.
