Our view: Do the right thing
If Mark Twain were around today, he might say, “Everybody talks about the health-care mess, but nobody does anything about it.”
That would certainly be true on the federal level, where the pursuit of universal coverage was broken off 13 years ago when Congress pulled the plug on then-President Clinton’s health-care proposal. Since then, there’s been no serious effort to revive the issue on the federal level.
However, the problems that made the idea of universal care a key issue in the 1992 presidential campaign have not disappeared. Indeed, they’ve only gotten worse. Health-care costs have continued their inexorable ascent, which has led to fewer employers offering coverage. One-fifth of non-Medicare citizens are uninsured. Those with coverage are paying more for less.
Unlike the feds, state and local officials can no longer afford to ignore a problem that is decimating budgets and endangering lives. That’s why bold and intriguing ideas are emerging from governments that are closest to the people.
Last year, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate that all of its citizens have coverage. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire just announced a plan that calls for universal coverage in five years. Nearly 600,000 Washington residents, including 73,000 children, are not covered. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ignored by the system, but it does mean that when they do get care, often in emergency situations, it is far more expensive.
One of the challenges facing Gregoire, or any leader addressing this issue, is educating the public on how cost containment is a key component of universal coverage. The nation simply cannot afford to cover 46 million additional people the same way it always has.
To illustrate the misperception of what drives health-care costs, consider the survey last September by USA Today, ABC News and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Eighty percent of respondents said they were not satisfied with the enormous bill for health care in the United States, which on a per person basis spends more than any country. But when it came to assigning blame for high costs, respondents dwelled on marginal factors, such as malpractice claims and medical companies’ profits.
Our leaders need to convey that the cost of non-insurance affects everyone. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, the United States spends nearly $100 billion a year on care for the uninsured, often for serious maladies that could have been prevented.
These are costs that in one form or another are passed along to those who are insured. These are costs that don’t acknowledge state borders, which is why the feds will have to get involved in containing costs.
Price tags aside, there’s this grim fact that should tell us that while health care may not be a right, covering everyone is the right thing to do: Among people ages 25-64, an estimated 18,000 deaths a year could be prevented, but for lack of health coverage.
Gregoire’s proposal may not be the answer, but its goal is one that everybody has a stake in economically and morally. This time critics have a duty to engage the debate, not end it.