And the debate goes on
The national health care debate goes on, as the number of uninsured Americans rise (44 million, according to the last count), as health care insurers face deficits, as employers envision double digit rate increases. Round and round we go and where we end up nobody knows. Or at least that’s what it seems.
The debate over a patients’ bill of rights, or other legislation, or whether for-profit or not-for-profit institutions are better than one another, seems to beg the heart of the issue.
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This is a systemic problem, developed over time as labor unions sought employer financed insurance coverage that provided employees with cradle to grave protection. It was a system that promoted absolutely no individual responsibility by the employee, and provided little incentive for the health care industry to run efficiently.
For some time now the costs have moved beyond many employers’ ability to pay. We’ve seen cost sharing, managed care, higher deductibles, new plans, HMOs, PPOs – and still health care costs rise at a rate that exceeds inflation.
Government officials seem bent on quick fix solutions, without taking a hard look at every aspect of the health care and health care insurance industries.
In Rhode Island – because of our small size – we have a unique opportunity to truly measure some of the core issues involved in health care delivery and health care costs. For some time we’ve called upon the state government to convene a health care summit of advocates, providers, insurers and government officials to begin a process of assessing the health care services that are provided in our state.
While a special commission compiled an impressive report with a series of statistics on a wide variety of health care related issues, it didn’t develop solutions, solutions frankly that can come only when all elements of the industry come together.
Do we have too many general hospital beds, too much duplication in services, and too many regulations that foster excesses rather than efficiency?
Many years ago, the state had the same situation with the collection of its blood supply. Each hospital had its own blood donor center, with an oversight organization that would coordinate blood drives throughout the state. If individual patients were unable to find enough blood donors to cover their needs, they were expected to pay a fee for the blood they used.
But then wisdom set in, and the hospitals and oversight group agreed that it would be better if there were one blood center, if the hospitals no longer had to support those systems. So the Rhode Island Blood Center was formed and established in Providence, serving as the center for the collection of blood, for the recruitment of donors, and for the coordination of blood drives. The result is a far more efficient system, a system where patients no longer are expected to find their own donors or pay a fee when they can’t.
Rhode Island could become a model for the nation if it tackles the issue of health care and health care costs aggressively and responsibly. This is the issue as we enter the year 2000, and it is one we need to deal with head-on if we are ever going to bring order to a system that, in many instances, is simply out of control.
A good defense
It is fitting to applaud our Congressional delegation for its role in lobbying for a Defense Authorization Bill that bodes well for area defense contractors.
The U.S. Senate’s adoption of the $288.8 billion 2000 Defense Authorization Bill makes a big winner out of General Dynamics/Electric Boat, Raytheon, Textron, KVH Industries and many others.
We know the pain of a massive reduction in military spending, having watched the Navy pull out of Quonset Point/Davisville in the early 1970s.
Fortunately, more recent history has been kinder to the Ocean State. In the past decade, downsizing in the military has brought about base closings and the consolidation of military facilities nationally.
But Rhode Island has remained relatively unscathed. The Newport Navy Base and Naval Undersea Warfare Center have grown in recent years. And this coming year, the Rhode Island Air National Guard will get a major boost in federal funding.
Hundreds of Rhode Island businesses still depend on the military. It’s good to know our Congressional delegation has the fortitude to go to bat for them – and the political clout to get results.
