Society of stakeholders

A routine visit to my doctor a couple of weeks ago reminded me that—well, let’s just say it reminded me there’s no such thing anymore as a routine visit to my doctor.

And no, I’m not trying to change the subject here from important national and international issues like presidential elections, nominations to the Supreme Court, religious liberty, immigration, and Islamic terrorists. But I am proposing that for almost any citizen of this once-great country, every one of those admittedly huge issues is likely to be eclipsed over the next few years by matters relating to healthcare. That is the case for several reasons:

1) Healthcare is a universal concern. Even if you live a long and doctor-free life, that will come to an end someday. My father reminded us from his deathbed, “All healing is temporary.” Large segments of contemporary society succeed in ignoring the major issues listed above. Only an infinitesimal few succeed in totally ignoring health issues. There’s probably never been a larger interest group in all of human history—people all pursuing maximum care at minimal cost.

2) We don’t know what value to put on human life. The technological reach of modern medicine stretches way beyond our ability to pay. That’s true for most of us as individuals. But it’s just as true for us as a society.

There’s probably never been a larger interest group in all of human history—people all pursuing maximum care at minimal cost.

The replacement of a worn-out hip or knee may come in for less than $20,000—or maybe not. Replacing a heart, a kidney, or some other vital organ easily gets you into figures twice that size. Complications? Now you’re heading into six-figure amounts. Or maybe even significant fractions of a million dollars.

I look around the little church where I’ve been a member for 35 years. I mentally add up the major medical episodes in the lives of various members (several of those episodes my own), and I think: No way could I ever have paid my own bills, especially after first paying hefty insurance premiums for more than three decades. But no way either could the people in my congregation, much as they love and care for one another, ever have paid one another’s bills.

The simple fact is we’ve all developed a habit of spending a lot more for healthcare than we can afford. When it begins happening to all of us at the same time—and it won’t be long now—some chickens will be coming home to roost.

3) We have no idea what we owe. When’s the last time you got a straightforward bill from a doctor, a clinic, or a hospital, with a simple bill for the service you received, followed by an offsetting payment by the insurance company (or Medicare), followed by the amount you still owe and a date when it’s due? I’ve had my share of medical bills over the last few years, and have worked hard also to handle the medical bookkeeping for my wife’s parents. Neither the service providers, the insurance industry, nor the government has any interest in making things plain to us common folk. So long as I’m confused, I’m vulnerable.

4) Obamacare is collapsing. You may have heard that some 20 million people now enjoy coverage they didn’t enjoy before Obamacare. Yet even if that’s true, you’ve probably heard even more about escalating premiums, doubled co-pays, and inflated deductibles. The combination of a Republican Congress and a Republican presidency will almost certainly produce Obamacare’s demise. That collapse could happen even if the Democrats win this year’s elections.

5) Doctors are disappearing. Many of the most caring and experienced are taking early retirements. Talk to them, and you’ll hear a depressing tale of forced compliance with meaningless government standards, rules, and regulations. Some doctors I’ve talked to are also tired of shaping their whole practice around the insurance companies’ priorities.

Just do your own search on the internet for “doctor shortage.” Then make your own evaluation of what it’s going to take to set history’s biggest interest group—medical patients—at ease about their future.

Email jbelz@wng.org