Steps toward affordable care

? Everyone running for office in the upcoming election is talking about health care. And who can blame them? When 45 million Americans lack health insurance and costs continue to soar, voters are seeking solutions.

A thorough discussion of this issue is vital. While political rhetoric about the “uninsured” abounds, there is very little understanding of who they are and what is really needed to help them.

Many people are surprised to discover that the uninsured are a diverse group. The uninsured hail from many walks of life but share common challenges, starting with inadequate access to preventive care services such as prescription medicines.

Everyone understands that forgoing prevention can be detrimental to someone’s health. What is less well understood is the economic impact. Upfront investments in preventive treatments result in fewer long-term hospitalizations and costly surgical procedures, while missing out on these services sends costs soaring.

Among the most troubling aspects of the access crisis is that the uninsured often pay more for the health care they do receive. Large-volume purchasers such as major employers and insurers can negotiate lower rates on everything from mammograms to wheelchairs to prescription medicines. The uninsured have no bargaining power.

The bottom line is that when the uninsured cannot afford to pay, we all pay. According to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, nearly $41 billion in health care bills will go unpaid this year — costs that ultimately are passed on to all American consumers and taxpayers.

So what can be done about it? Are there answers to be found in the piles of rhetoric littering the campaign trail?

Unfortunately, in the heat of a political campaign many candidates often push simplistic but misguided solutions — increased government control of health care, job-killing employer mandates or the import of potentially unsafe medicines.

Such programs may be politically popular at first blush, but they’re economically unsustainable and threaten the quality, safety and innovation of our health care system.

Politicians looking for guidance on health care should pay attention to a number of recent developments in the private sector that hold great promise for sharply reducing the ranks of the uninsured.

One of the basic principles of insurance is that it gives the beneficiary access to negotiated pricing. Several private-sector initiatives now offer the uninsured the benefit of negotiated prices — a longtime staple of private health insurance, but heretofore unavailable to the unemployed and to lower-paid working Americans struggling to afford coverage.

Numerous hospitals, for example, now are voluntarily offering discounted rates to people who lack insurance. Insurers are increasingly developing low-cost basic coverage policies aimed at uninsured families and individuals.

And many pharmaceutical companies are supporting Together Rx, a program that helps low-income seniors save approximately 20 to 40 percent on brand-name prescription medicines.

This month, pharmacists nationwide began filling prescriptions under Pfizer Pfriends, a new program that provides uninsured patients of any age or income level substantial savings on that company’s prescription medicines — savings similar to those insured Americans take for granted.

Despite their desire for answers, voters are skeptical about campaign sound bites on health care because they realize there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all of the nation’s 45 million uninsured.

Candidates would be wise to tone down their political rhetoric and emulate the private sector’s focus on common-sense steps aimed at helping the uninsured gain access to coverage. The task ahead is difficult, but working together Americans can achieve high-quality health care for everyone.


Jack Strayer is senior health care analyst with the National Center for Policy Analysis (www.ncpa.org), a nonpartisan free enterprise think-tank in Dallas and Washington, D.C.