By Mike Daly
Retired CEO Baystate Health System
If you find what is going on in Washington these days confusing, join the crowd.
Everything I read refers to reform differently depending on the day. Many news articles describe efforts in Washington as health insurance reform but what lawmakers are really grappling with is “healthcare system reform.”
Insurance reform is important, but it is only one component of the real objective, which is an overhaul of the entire healthcare system.
The healthcare system in the U.S. is too costly. Quality and outcomes across the nation are uneven, access to physicians and hospital services leave out too many citizens and frankly, we have a non-system.
Health system reform can only be achieved if we attack the problems incrementally.
Here are a handful of the issues that need to be addressed:
- Insurance reform
- Tort reform
- Payment reform
- Regulatory reform
- Oversight reform
- Special interest reform (i.e., unions)
Taking on all these problems at once invites failure. Addressing them one at a time can lead to real solutions.
Of course we would need more time if we were to handle these problems incrementally. Lawmakers may not like that idea. But I believe this approach has the most probability in terms of success.
