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Americans want health care to improve
A stethoscope sitting on a laptop
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Stacey Vanek-Smith: The markets may be feeling healthy, but Americans aren't -- at least not about our health care system. So says a new survey from the Commonwealth Fund. Steve Henn has more.
Steve Henn: Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, says for much of the last two decades. policymakers in Washington have looked to market forces to improve health care.
Karen Davis: While we've done that, the numbers of uninsured have grown, the number of underinsured have grown, the number or people with medical debts has grown and health care costs has gone up.
The survey found that 80 percent of Americans believe needs system needs an overhaul.
Davis: And I think it goes well beyond insurance coverage.
Nearly three-quarters report problems getting their calls returned by doctors, booking appointments or finding care on weekends. Most say their physicians don't talk to each other, share results or have easy access to their medical records. And 9 out of 10 Americans say they want the next president to do something.
While both Barack Obama and John McCain have detailed health care plans that would try to improve communication and primary care, Davis says neither candidate's plan does enough to bring costs down.
In Washington, I'm Steve Henn for Marketplace.
The other problem is that the people in the health care system have no incentive, financially speaking, to provide good service to their patients. We all know, firsthand, that when we need to speak to a doctor, it is almost impossible just to get them to call us to talk through what is wrong and meanwhile, we feel sick. But this is because we don't pay them. Our employers /insurers pay them and try hard to minimize the time that the doctors spend with us in the name of cutting costs.
Truth is, we don't have a market for health insurance. Employers control insurance choices. The insurance companies control the options. Information about quality of care is pretty carefully kept from the consumers. The various terms for money you have to pay are invented and changed constantly to confuse consumers. Money is disapearing on a vast scale, and no one seems to know where it is going. What market functions this way? In this case "Market" means "system for fleecing consumers the way we have been". And yelling "socialized medicine" is a sorry placebo for real improvements.
It's time we ensure health and long-term financial security for all. That’s why AARP is leading Divided We Fail, an initiative to give voice to millions of Americans who are tired of letting Washington gridlock stand in the way of affordable, quality health care and long-term financial security. Go to www.dividedwefail.org to learn more.
