President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Will Fail. What Should We Be Doing Next?

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Dr. Don Berwick, Director of CMS, has stated that the Healthcare System is too complex for people to manage their own medical care. It must be left up to the experts in government. I believe 160 new government agencies will not succeed in managing individuals’ medical care very efficiently. The resulting system will be less efficient. It will also limit access to care.

The Massachusetts Healthcare Reform experiment has failed for reasons I have outlined previously.

President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Plan will also fail at a very high cost to the American taxpayer. His healthcare reform law follows the basic principles of the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Plan.

Some readers misunderstand the two models I have proposed to Repair the Healthcare System. Those models are Consumer Driven Healthcare and the Ideal Medical Saving Accounts.

Regina Herzlinger the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration Chair at Harvard Business School has been called the “godmother” of Consumer Driven Healthcare.

For those readers who skim blogs, I think it would be a excellent exercise for the reader to settle down and watch an entertaining “You Tube” by Dr. Regina Herzlinger describing the power of Consumer Driven Healthcare.

McKinsey consultants have claimed that administrative inefficiency of the healthcare system accounts for $500 billion dollars of excess cost per year to the healthcare system. I think it is closer to $250 billion dollars a year.

Eliminating inefficiency will not be achieved by adding 160 new bureaucratic agencies and over 800 new regulations.

The solution to the problem is easy. The social contract for medical care should be between patients and physicians. Consumers should owned their healthcare dollars. They should be given incentives to be responsible for their medical care and maintaining their health. Chronic disease complication rates would fall, obesity would be decrease and the cost of healthcare would decrease.

The role of government should be to empower consumers to control their medical expenditures and maintain their health. The government should level the playing field between stakeholders. It should provide education and subsidies to those who need it. The government should teach them how to control their healthcare dollars and maintain their health. Then government should get out of the way.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.