An Open Letter to the 44th President of the United States
Published on Sunday, February 01, 2009
This article appeared in the Winter Edition of "To Your Good Health: A Healthcare Newsletter"
AN OPEN LETTER:
Dear Mr. 44th President
By Gary Sheehan
A litany of challenges will be facing your administration, healthcare being but one of them. But few have the long reaching political, financial, and social ramifications as repairing our healthcare system.
With some notable exceptions, few prominent politicians have demonstrated the political will to stand up and provide true leadership on this matter. And for good reason. It does not represent an expedient political victory, but rather is comprised of numerous competing agendas, strong lobbyists, a juggernaut of various patient advocacy groups, and some very powerful corporations working to maintain the status quo.
Fundamental to any discussion is mitigating the unfettered inflationary pressures on healthcare costs. These have taken a greater share of per capita GDP than any other country and which continue to negatively impact our global competitiveness. A reduction in waste, rather than a reduction in services, should be the preferred method to achieve a reasonable level of cost containment. Even though we have tried and failed before to mitigate the overall rise in the cost of healthcare; we need to look at the “back-office” functions within the system by utilizing those sophisticated technologies already standard in other industry sectors.
By reducing non-clinical spending we can produce a more efficient healthcare system and have more money for patient care. This will provide a greater return for our invested healthcare dollar.
Additionally, we need to encourage care delivery in the most cost efficient settings, leaving the higher-cost environments free to provide high quality care for those patients who require it.
There are a number of challenges here as well. Just look at the over-utilization of expensive emergency room services. Then try to balance that problem against a picture of fewer primary care doctors available to deliver care in a lower-cost setting, a dwindling supply of qualified nurses, and a serious capacity issue with alternative site care.
What becomes clear is that it’s an incredibly complex challenge that requires leadership, intelligence, and creativity to solve. There is no silver bullet here; no easy fix or adjustment that can snap us out of the current crisis–it will continue to take a broad approach, strong leadership, and detailed study. But it must be prioritized.
Cost reductions must come from all areas, and consumers must play a more pro-active role in their own healthcare. That means being an engaged patient, and also making the necessary lifestyle changes to reduce risk of chronic health conditions. In the macro-picture it’s our country’s best hope of reducing overall healthcare expenditures in the longer term.
I hope as our next President you can make the difficult decisions, provide the strong leadership this crisis calls for and work diligently to ensure our healthcare infrastructure remains the worldwide destination for care, while creating a more fiscally manageable program for our residents and businesses.
(Mr. Sheehan is President/CEO of Cape Medical Supply, Inc., 1-800-339-3322 or gsheehan@capemedical.net
