Not Seeing the Health Care Forest for the Trees

I know this story is about a week old, but this recent summary at medheadlines.com put in stark contrast the disconnect big business has on a health care reform. When it comes to ideology v reality, CEOs are choose ideology.

Chief executive officers (CEOs) of major US companies gather each year for a Business Roundtable … These CEOs are describing the American health care system as a liability on the global economy and have called out for years to put some controls on health care costs, especially since the burden of the expense falls so heavily on the nation’s employers.

This is where these business geniuses start bumping into walls…

(Their) report asks for reform but does not endorse government-run health care systems similar to those of other industrialized (advanced) nations. It suggests, instead, that health care should remain privatized but with a safety net backed by the government to assist people of limited means.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they just recommended the system we already have in place. You know the one in crisis right now. CEOs want health care to remain private with safety nets like Medicare and Medicaid. They came to this conclusion even after compiling the following data:

When comparing the dollar amount spent to the health of the citizenry, the roundtable findings include:

$2.4 trillion a year is spent on health care in the US ... On a per-capita basis, that’s $1,928 per person for 2006, $1,928 per capita is 250% more than any other advanced nation spends.

On a cost-to-value basis, the US is 23 points behind its five top economic competitors (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom).

The governments of these five nations play a bigger role in their health care systems than the US does although each nation operates on a different health care system.

The US is 46 points behind its closest emerging competitors (Brazil, China, and India).The roundtable report highlights the fact that other nations pay less for health care but have healthier citizens.

Faced with a health care business model that works, American CEOs have decided to change the current system into something that is exactly the same…

That is the definition of insanity.