Health Care Reform? Can't afford it!

With a huge sigh of relief, the Professor has finally finished doing the job of Congress...

Yes...I've read HR 3200, the Health Care Reform legislation as it's come out of the house. Now keep in mind I didn't analyze every paragraph in detail, as the majority of this huge use of paper is taken up in definitions and pointing to other sections of the bill. But I do, finally, have a rough idea of what's going on here.

I'm pretty certain that's a lot more than any of our Congressional members can say at this point, having heard them go on about it to the media. It's a lot more than most folks will ever be able to say, as wading through this claptrap is a mind-numbing experience at best.

Between definitions of every facet of the health care industry, and how every facet has to be changed to meet new federal standards, and requirements for personnel and administration of any company making a medical device, a drug, providing any type of service, and actually...heaven forbid...finding time to practice medicine...I'm amazed they got so much into the thousand plus pages.

Anyone in the health care industry today understands that efficiency in operations is the key to getting costs down and making products and services more affordable. This is why procedures that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars now cost thousands. It's why we can buy generic drugs, that didn't exist a decade ago, at discount stores for under five bucks.

One of the main administrative costs in hospitals, clinics, and practices today is the managment of insurance claims, billing, and invoicing. You've likley noticed, when visiting your own doctor or dentist, that there are more bodies in the front office than there are in treatment rooms. Every doctor needs up to half-a-dozen support staff just to survive anymore.

A great deal of study has gone into making these admin functions more efficient. Something that private business does better than any entity on earth is to figure out how to control costs. Every business owner is aware that every dollar wasted is money from their own pocket.

Government, on the other hand, is extremely good at piling up costs and increasing expenses beyond belief. It's simply the way government functions...the larger the agency, the more the waste and the less it performs for every dollar it sucks in.

The major problem with this health care bill is not philosophical...it's not about losing control of your ability to make decisions with your physician without a counselor being involved...it's about costs! And the costs are stunning...well beyond what anyone has even begun to calculate, because most of those costs will be passed on to the consumer and the provider. And it is a short-fused time bomb!

The bill is more than 1,000 pages...and almost every page...read it yourself if you don't believe me...creates another 2 to 4 forms for the industry to fill out and file with the government.

Some of those forms are required for every patient...some for every patient visit...some are annual, some quarterly, some monthly...most are arbitrary. Most would appear to be on the wish list of some petty bureaucrat who wants to monitor some little tidbit of some business with which they may well have an axe to grind. From diversity forms which will prove the doctor doesn't discriminate against any and all types of victim groups, to forms proving a prescribed drug meets cost-benefit ratios, to forms recording financials and requiring justification for all billings...the burden is unbelievable and crushing in its volume.

It literally seems as if a thousand people contributed to this bill...each certain that his or her set of forms and requirements were absolutely vital to making the health care system work...and none knowing that the other 999 folks were also requiring a report and a form.

Taken as a whole...our health care industry will need a couple of years to hire people to wade through this bill...try and decipher what it means...try to come up with reports and forms to fill all the requirements...and every manufacturer, practice, clinic, and hospital, will have to hire armies of admin personnel to try and keep up with these reports.

You think health care costs are high now? Brother you have no idea what's coming down the pike. This is a tidal wave of bureacratically enforced expenses that will crush any and all who wish to serve the public in health care...and the people who want to receive care as well.

The estimated costs of a couple of trillion dollars if this bill becomes fact...waaaaaaay too low. This could run a hundred times that over the next decade and simply put every provider and vendor out of business.

Anyone want to tell me I'm lying...read the bill. Check out the Library of Congress...it's in our links...and pull up the text for HR 3200. It's a simple thing folks...break the bank and there ain't no more banks. Break the health care system...and where will you go when you need help.

Well...there's always Canada! Maybe they can squeeze out some aspirin and bandaids.

The Professor