"Broken" Health Care by Craig Covello

I work as a project manager for the IT component of a large healthcare organization. Usually the work feels rewarding, especially when you can see the tangible results of the project team's efforts. But on days like today, it is especially satisfying. I made a difference in the life of a 17-year-old cancer patient. Let me explain.

For a long, long time, our organization has been trying to implement wireless LAN guest access for use by patients and their families on laptop computers and smart-phones. No big deal, right? Well maybe not for Starbucks, but in a hospital setting we have to be very careful with frequencies and bandwidth utilization so that clinical information systems are not degraded, or worse attacked, as a result of Internet surfing by the public. We finally arrived at a solution. At 9:00 PST last night, we flipped the switch. Wireless guest access is now available on the entire hospital campus.

The truth is we were not planning on flipping the switch quite this soon. There's additional work to be done regarding generation of public relations announcements, but we decided to activate the system early because of a special circumstance. It seems that there was a young man who was admitted three months ago and is still undergoing chemotherapy. To make matters worse, this kid won't be going home for at least another three months. In the meantime, he's staring at the four walls of an isolated sterile room. Sure, there's the occasional mind numbing diversion of "reality" television, but how much of that can even healthy person take? (I don't think anyone's writing television scripts anymore, right Frank?) Our organization's hospital administrator was sensitive to this situation, so she gave me a call inquiring if there was any way we could expedite campus-wide access to the Internet, specifically for the benefit of this particular patient. What could I say? The answer, of course, was yes. We made this a priority. It was available as of this morning. In fact, I had the privilege of delivering a laptop to this teenager. Both he and his mother were very grateful. Can you imagine a 17-year-old diagnosed with cancer and stuck in a hospital room without being able to communicate with his friends via e-mail or Facebook for the past 3 months?

What does any of this have to do with politics?

Well, it occurred to me walking out of the hospital that there has been a lot of negative press regarding American healthcare lately. Even Obama himself said "Our health-care system is broken: expensive, inefficient, and poorly adapted...” Nancy Pelosi was also quoted as saying - ““You go through the gate. If the gate's closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we'll poll vault in. If that doesn't work, we'll parachute in. But we're going to get health care passed for the American people.” She speaks as if to imply that there is no health care for the American people at all. Time for a reality check. There is no national "crisis", and now it looks like Obama has put health-care reform on the back burner. If it was truly a national crisis, why would he give it such a casual mention 30 minutes into the State of the Union address? More on that later.

Obama used the term "broken". The definition of "broken" means that something is not working. That's not the case here. We certainly have issues regarding escalating healthcare costs which need to be addressed, but not by having the federal government take over under the guise of reducing costs. Far too many examples have been cited illustrating how the federal government's control of anything actually increases costs. To say otherwise is disingenuous. And it also implies that escalating costs are caused by a greedy free market. Politicians have vilified insurance companies over this issue, but have you heard much commentary regarding the improvement in care over the past 15 years? Has this health care debate said anything about the cost of research, which roughly doubled 1994 between 2003? Miracles cost money. How much is a life worth? These are tough questions. It is easier to target an industry and attack it than being honest about where the money is being spent.

There have also been a lot of alarming statistics thrown around regarding the number of uninsured Americans. The White House believes this number is about 45 million people, or 15% of the population. Other studies suggest it's closer to 3% when you consider those who choose not to have insurance or those who are between jobs. I don't know which statistic is closer to the truth, but based upon my experience listening to this administration, it's probably closer to 3% than 15%. Yes, the unemployment rate is currently 9.7% and certainly much higher if we consider people who have stopped looking for jobs and are no longer counted. But the number of individuals sans healthcare does not necessarily mirror the number of unemployed, since health insurance plans typically cover households. These households may have spouses who provide family coverage. No matter. Even if we use the most liberal number of 15%, it still means that 85% of Americans have health insurance and they want to keep it in place.

And if our system is so "inefficient", why do we offer some of the best care in the world? Case in point: the 60-year-old Canadian premier Danny Williams recently came to the United States for heart surgery to correct a rare aneurysm. Canadian officials believe that there is an adequate cardio care in places like Ontario, but they also admit that no one in their entire country has much experience with treating William's rare condition. He's in good company with other Canadian officials who have sought US healthcare as lifesaving alternative to Canada's nationalized health system. This list includes Quebec’s Robert Bourassa in 1990 and Parliament's Belinda Stronach in 2007. These examples are purely anecdotal, but they are telling.

My personal opinion? Healthcare is not "broken". Healthcare is in the cross-hairs of the government because that's where a lot of money is these days. If the White House numbers are correct, forcing 45 million people into federally mandated, administered and under-funded healthcare programs will not reduce costs, but it sure is a good way to skim a percentage off the top for government coffers. This concept will also introduce layers of additional bureaucracy which will do nothing but complicate this situation, put additional barriers between the doctor-patient relationship, limit choices and reduce the overall quality of care. That's a strong statement, but stop and reflect for a moment the possibility of politicians in Washington making health care decisions for you. Oh, by the way, it was proposed that Congress be exempt from the plan and that Unions be exempt from certain types of health care taxation. Also telling.

Some may think that this article touches on a stale topic. After all, Obamacare is dead, right? Wrong. It failed publicly, so be prepared for stealth mode. Rename it, break it into smaller pieces and repackage it. Delay the schedule. Work behind the scenes to get federal control over the healthcare system. Remember what the queen of the Air force taxi service said: "we'll poll vault in. If that doesn't work, we'll parachute in. But we're going to get (nationalized) health care passed for the American people.”

Let's say Nancy gets her way. Fast forward 10 years and I wonder how the situation with our 17-year-old cancer patient would be if Obamacare was implemented. Would he have a private room as he does today? Would he have a hospital administrator advocating on his behalf in order to lift his spirits with free Internet access? Would his family be able to afford an insurance policy that would pay for a hospital stay in excess of six months? Would he receive the best care, as judged by his physician? Or would he simply be told by a federal employee to go home after two weeks with a med dispenser because of the new, "efficient, government healthcare?

The health care system is not broken. Ask the teenager.

© 2010 by Craig Covello. Used with permission. All rights reserved.