Tommy Douglas is the patron saint and father of the much beloved Canadian health care system. Many people believe that Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin is our own Tommy Douglas. Governor Shumlin is committed to bringing single payer health care to Vermont.
As S&P downgrades the U.S. debt rating from AAA+ to AA+, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin explains in the Huffington Post that the debt deal is as bogus as a $3 bill. Why? Because as Governor Shumlin states, unsustainable health care costs will destroy our nation, not Social Security. The politicians want us to think that entitlements are the problem because of the need to protect the for-profit insurance industry which is a conduit for huge campaign contributions.
This is Governor Shumlin's HuffPo take home message.
Americans rightly are scared that our leaders can't find a way out of this muddle. But the really sobering part is this: the solutions under consideration don't fix the problem. Even if Congress enacts the most draconian spending cuts advanced by the Tea Partiers, and all of the tax increases advanced by the liberals, we will not be out of the mess. The crisis will still loom. Why? Because health care costs continue to increase at an unsustainable rate, and health care spending is the single largest category of federal spending. Without real, sustained health care cost control, we still face a crisis, no matter what package of cuts and revenues the new "gang of 12" develops.
So here's the truth. We need to replace is the for-profit insurance industry, and a system which treats disease as opposed to promoting prevention and wellness. The ACA does begin to address the critical role of prevention. But the insurance industry undermines this initiative by herding Americans into health plans which have huge deductibles.
These so-called 'consumer directed' plans saddle us with huge out-of-pocket costs, and require financially strapped Americans with virtually no disposable income to pay for preventive medical care while also paying for junk insurance. So what happens? Dramatically declining 'utilization',the insurer language for Americans who pay for junk insurance, but don't have the additional cash to pay the up front costs. And increased profits for health insurers. Read the unbelievable AHIP statement on preventive care.
This is what Wendell Potter wrote the other day about exploding insurer profits and high deductible junk insurance.
Another important way they’ve been able to sustain such a string of impressive earnings results is to shift more and more of the cost of care to their policyholders. An increasing percentage of these companies’ policyholders are enrolled in plans that require greater cost sharing. Those policyholders pay more for care out of their own pockets than ever before while their insurers are paying much less.
Does anyone besides Governor Shumlin look at charts like this? I doubt it, because to do so, you'd have to concludethat our for-profit health care system is bringing this country to its knees.
And let me ask you, did you hear any of the wizards in Washington address this urgent reality? Of course not, because to do so, would require some honesty and integrity which doesn't exist there. Bernie Sanders excluded.
So Governor Shumlin is going to do what Washington won't.
It's likely that Vermont will be the first state in the nation to enact something that will quite closely resemble single payer health care. It will not be 100% single payer, but it will be very, damn close. This is why there will be a fight the likes of which we've probably never seen in the tiny state of Vermont as the insurance industry draws a line in the sand.
AHIP knows that if Vermont is successful it's only a matter of time that single payer will sweep the nation. So AHIP is gearing up for the fight of its life.
In Vermont we are pursuing a plan that we think will control health care costs, not just by cutting fees to doctors and hospitals, but by fundamentally changing the state's health care system. I have launched an ambitious effort, with support from the Vermont legislature, to implement a single payer system in Vermont. Under the plan, single payer coverage will be a right and not a privilege, and will not be connected to employment. This is groundbreaking. But our success in guaranteeing coverage depends on our ability to control health care costs, so our plan is focused squarely on that goal. It has three parts:* Reduce administrative waste: We spend at least eight cents of every health care dollar on pushing paperwork. We can use health information technology to implement a single system for processing claims and a single set of coverage rules, and allow patients adjudicate their bills at the point of service. This will not only save money, but make using the health care system easier and more understandable for doctors and patients alike.
* Reduce clinical waste and duplication: Again, we can use the best technology to assure that your doctor has a pipeline to your medical record. This will allow the next doctor to know what the last doctor did, and reduce the countless unnecessary and duplicate tests and treatments that occur in our health care system every year.
* Encourage health and efficiency with the right financial incentives: Vermont doctors and hospitals are paid largely on a fee-for-service basis. They make more when they do more. We want to change that, so providers get paid for outcomes, for keeping people healthy, rather than for volume. We also want to build into the system of coverage financial incentives for all Vermonters to maximize their own health by eating right, being active and getting the right preventive care.
Tommy Douglasis considered the most important Canadian in modern history. He is the beloved founder of the Canadian health care system. The Canadian health care systems covers all its citizens at a fraction of the cost of the U.S. system, which leaves 55 million without access to any care.
The Canadian single payer health care system, began in Saskatchewan and soon morphed throughout Canada. This is why many of us believe the fight for single payer in Vermont and California is so important and why the insurance industry will fight it so viciously. Vermont and California will lead the nation from the valley of the shadow of insurance industry death.
Yesterday I told you how the administrative waste inherent in dealing with the for-profit insurance industry costs American doctors $83,000 a year compared to $22,000 doctors in Ontario pay.
Here's that pesky chart again, kept me up last night thinking about it.
And I'll leave you with what Paul Krugman has to say about the S&P downgrade(he isn't impressed), until we start talking about health care costs we're doomed. Truly doomed.
And if you don't believe me, Krugman and Governor Shumlin, you can believe Dean Baker. Our debt crisis is all about our health care costs. Take a look.
"Our long term debt story is overwhelmingly a health care story"