Dr. Brady recently wrote an editorial for an orthopaedic journal regarding the healthcare debate in the US.
Below is his editorial.
Healthcare
Disaster? I DON’T BUY IT
By Paul C.
Brady, M.D.
Last month Bennie Lindeque’s editorial asserted that the
American healthcare system is a ‘disaster’. I DON’T
BUY IT. And here are some other things I don’t buy.
1.
Foreign healthcare
systems are better than ours: Dr. Lindeque outlined
the healthcare systems of 4 other countries. He
mentioned both pros and cons of these healthcare systems
but his editorial was clearly biased in favor of these
systems over our own. While a detailed discussion of
international healthcare is beyond the scope of this
editorial, I will assert that EVERY national healthcare
system functions by employing one common
strategy…RATIONING! Whether it is rationing in terms
of services provided or timeliness of providing those
services… it WILL require rationing – period. If
government healthcare systems are so great than why did the
incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association
recently state… "We all agree that the system is imploding,
we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps
Canadians realize”. That doesn’t sound like a system
we want to emulate. Foreign healthcare systems are
superior to ours? I DON’T BUY IT.
2.
A government
healthcare system is necessary in the USA as one additional
option: Some argue insurance companies need the
competition and that a government system will only be one
of our many choices. First of all, someone please
remind me of a government run system…any government
system…which works efficiently. Can’t think of one
can you? Secondly - to actually think the government
will not eventually become the only choice in a single
payor system is foolishness – I don’t buy it. How
could any other insurance company compete with an
organization which uses tax dollars to undercut its
competitors?
3.
The United States
healthcare system ranks 37th in the world according to the WHO:
First of all, this ranking was performed in the year
2000. So why are we talking about it almost a decade
later? And isn’t the WHO a subsidiary of the United
Nations? Oh that’s an extremely objective and
unbiased organization (please feel the sarcasm). If
the US is 37th in the world then please tell me
the 36 other countries you’d like to go to when you need
your hip replacement, or when you need heart surgery, or
when you develop prostate cancer.
37th
in the world… I DON’T
BUY IT.
4.
There are 47 million
uninsured Americans. This one is easy…I DON’T BUY IT
and anyone who does is either dishonest or
delusional. That severely inflated number includes
illegal aliens, young people who CHOOSE to forego
healthcare, and people eligible for other programs who have
not applied for those programs. The true number is
likely closer to 15 million. And let’s remember that
EVERY one of those 47 million people DO have health
care. They can walk into any emergency department in
the country and immediately receive the same state of the
art medical services that Donald Trump would receive.
5.
Healthcare is a right:
It may not be a ‘politically correct’ opinion but I
just don’t see healthcare as one of my inalienable
rights. I don’t buy it. If healthcare is a
right then for me to not provide elective care (such as an
elective shoulder surgery) to an uninsured patient would be
unethical. I don’t buy that. I would agree that
withholding emergency care is unethical but I do not
believe I am ethically bound to provide my services as an
arthroscopic shoulder specialist to every uninsured patient
in the country.
6.
Tort reform: ANY
healthcare overhaul that doesn’t address tort reform is
worthless…PERIOD. The pundits suggest that medical
malpractice is actually a small piece of the healthcare
expenditure pie – I don’t buy it. Between the direct
costs and more importantly the defensive medical costs,
tort reform is one step that could immediately and
dramatically impact our healthcare system in a positive
manner if it were enacted. Just look at the Texas
example. The fact that tort reform is not on the
healthcare agenda is proof positive that this entire
healthcare debate is just a political game.
7.
“If you like your
doctor…you can keep your doctor. If you like your
healthcare plan…you can keep that plan”…Quote from
President Obama: Mr. President…I DON’T BUY IT.
This is false for two important reasons. First of all
if my employer discovers that a government plan is much
cheaper than their private insurance plan – it’s just a
matter of time before they switch to the government
plan. Thus I lose the healthcare plan that Obama
promised me I could keep. Secondly when my doctor
realizes that the government plan physician reimbursement
hardly covers his overhead and elects to opt out of the
government plan…then all of a sudden I also lose the doctor
that Mr. Obama promised me I could keep. Clearly this
statement is blatantly FALSE.
8.
Healthcare costs being
16% of the US economy is a bad thing: The vast
majority of the dollars spent on healthcare actually stay
in the USA. This can’t be said of the auto industry
and the recent government cash for clunker program that
sent over 50% of our tax dollars to Japanese auto
makers. Healthcare employs millions of people in the
US. Multiple healthcare industries have successfully
been developed and yes… even insurance companies have made
a great deal of money. But that’s our country!
If a company provides a valuable service then they usually
succeed and expand. Why are we so quick to villainize
them for this success? Saying that our healthcare
system is bad simply because of its share of the GDP (16%)
- I don’t buy it.
I know our
healthcare system is not perfect. There are many
things we could change. However let’s also remember
that the United States is intimately unique in the
world. No other country has the cultural diversity
that we enjoy. While this is wonderful and makes our
country unique, it also adds to the challenges that we face
with our healthcare system. The bottom line is that
it is impossible to think that a single system –
particularly one run by our federal government - will
accommodate all of the diversity in our country.
Instead of an overhaul, why don’t we work toward making
strategic changes in our system? Is our healthcare
system a disaster? I don’t buy it. But if Obama
gets his way and we become a single payor government
healthcare system…I guess I’ll be forced to buy it – and so
will you.
Author:
Dr. Brady is a shoulder specialist at Tennessee Orthopaedic
Clinics in Knoxville, TN
Dr. Brady has no relevant financial relationships to
disclose.
For more information about other things I don’t buy -
visit
www.paulbradymd.com