What it means to be sick in a Country with the most expensive Health care delivery system

               The Article “Sick Around America”was published on the first quarter of 2009 and appeared on PBS. Frontline, the publisher, investigated what it meant to be sick in America; it described our broken healthcare system and how citizens suffered with these flaws. The article explained that the 160 million insured population are very lucky because we have the most advanced healthcare delivery system. But even if there is high sophistication and technological advancement we also have the most expensive healthcare delivery system, which I believe means that the United States is the worst place to get sick even if you are insured.

             To further describe this, let me explain the difference between large employer sponsored insurance and small employer sponsored insurance using the Care continuum model to compare the effects on two different companies using a million dollar birth as an example.

                 Here’s the scenario; an employee undergoes a very complicated pregnancy and the direct medical cost is around a million.
                 It might not affect the large employer because it pools the risk out of its 5,000-50,000 employees, but for small businesses who employs only 50-500 employees their premium could almost double.  I believe bigger companies usually have the flexibilityand price competitiveness because they have lower risk, they pay more and they have a more efficient network. In response, larger company health plans were restructured to cut the cost without harming access.

                On the other hand, smaller companies have the least flexible health plans, they consider network composition and access as second in importance after price. The worst part, some small business employers practice medical underwriting, such as, if an employer has to choose between a physically fit person and me who is diabetic and overweight, my chances of getting hired is slim to none. This is because, President Obama make it into law that all employers have to give health coverage to all of its employees, but in the employers point of view, I am a risk because I have all these diseases. Employers don’t want a higher premium and they want to meet their overhead so I would understand. But isn’t that illegal? yes it is. More to say, the employer might also go out of business if they would hire me, now there’s the dilemma. With our very volatile economic situation, health coverage has become more expensive and less comprehensive, the current market is very challenging for all types of employers.

               On 2010, it was estimated that health care cost grew twice as much as inflation, and with our health care system taking 17 percent of our GDP it means a lot. The economic collapse on 2008 led a lot of people to bankruptcy, while hospitals and companies either closed or downsized, but the worst part, health care cost kept on rising.  I believe in this troubled economy nobody is safe, Georgetown University Research Professor Karen Pollitz explains that for many people, the current system is “like having an airbag in your car that’s made of tissue paper: I’m so glad that it’s there, but if I ever get in a crash, it’s not going to protect me.”
The trend has changed, some Americans today makes life decisions based on health insurance. I’m talking about  job lock, those who are stuck on a job they do not want because of health insurance. While for others, life becomes a quest to find and keep health insurance, while some others die with supposedly treatable conditions. According to some PCP’s, nowadays some people won’t die of the disease; they die secondary to the complications of a failing health care system.

                 I believe the current health care system needs to change, but I am not in favor of President Obama’s Health care reform bill because I believe our system is still broken. I agree that it is a very admirable goal of the president, but it is not timely and we still have a lot of flaws. In my opinion, the government should push for a consumer driven health care system to stimulate managed care product innovation, drive fair physician and hospital cost, & develop a more efficient plan design. Because if we cannot cut our 22 percent administrative cost, push for equal and fair hospital and physician pricing, lower the overall cost, cut insurance income and etc. we are just nibbling around the edges of this broken system, patching hole after hole. In the end nothing changed but an increase in the cost of this $2.2 trillion broken system, and who will suffer? The taxpayers of course.