The Health Care Dilemma

07/29/2007

Paul Munnis


In a recent NPR radio interview on health care in America, a University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) associate professor, Jonathan Oberlander, was interviewed about the American health care system. He provided an excellent narrative on health care in the U.S. vs Canada and suggested that he thought that the German model was more appropriate for the U.S. That is to say he thought it a better fit for our society since its employer based. You can hear it by clicking HERE.

We have just put up an article on the German system and hope that you enjoy reading it. It can be accessed by clicking HERE.

In the course of the NPR discussion Oberland opined that in America we will have a very hard time getting public healthcare installed because healthcare is a two Trillion dollar per year industry and large amounts of money will be spent by political lobby’s firms and PAC’s trying to prevent the loss of industry revenue. In order to make it affordable we have to control costs and so there will be loss of revenue for providers. He said that insurance companies, drug companies, and health care providers all will fight any attempt to change our system.

That is the rub isn’t it? If we want to get the system changed then we have to fight the PAC’s and the industry lobby groups for health care providers and pharmaceuticals.

Every time that I look at this subject I have trouble answering how to keep the lawmakers from being tainted. First I want the industry to be able to speak and be heard yet I don’t want them buying the issue.

One way to do it would be to ban industry access to lawmakers and prevent industry donations to political campaigns. The ban could be temporary, let’s say until Congress can have a needed debate, draft legislation, and get a vote on the proposed legislation. During the ban the industry could still speak-out, publish material, and buy media ads. Congress could then work to get rid of the worst problems while still getting a system in place. At least if anyone in the health care system is laid off as a result of the lawmaking they would have health insurance while looking for work. All evidence is that for able-bodied workers there is going to be plenty of employment opportunity in the coming years with a shortage of American workers forecast.

It is going to be very hard to hold the needed national dialog under the present rules and Congress itself needs to change the rules to permit a national discussion to take place.