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Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

YOUR SAY: ‘Fuzzy, inaccurate and misleading information’

In the Oct. 25 Telegraph, Tom Wagoner had an interesting and informative letter, though perhaps not in the way he intended. Wagoner, who is president and CEO of Core Management Resources Group Inc., a health management firm, argues against health- care reform for two reasons. The first I find simply insensitive and essentially heartless. He asks us to remember that the 40 to 45 million people currently without health insurance “only” (his word) constitute 12 to 15 percent of the population. What I consider appalling, Wagoner seems to consider trivial. We are talking about 40 to 45 million human beings. We are talking about the health of a country, both physical and moral.

Wagoner’s second reason for opposing health-care reform is, I think, fuzzy, inaccurate and misleading. He argues that the real intent of the government in pushing health-care reform is to tax or obligate the 85 percent of us who do have health insurance in order to “do something for the 12 or 15 percent without health insurance.” Well, yes. I expect that is the intent. To do something for people in need. The implicit assumption here, however, is that we are not already being taxed and obligated to provide for the health-care needs of these millions of people when of course the opposite is true. The cost of indigent care is enormous. Where does the money come from? From taxpayers. Just remember how each year the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon and Grady Hospital in Atlanta, just to cite a couple of examples, have to go to the appropriate public officials pleading for additional funds to provide services for the indigent population.

Wagoner ends his letter with a warning: “Don’t be fooled.” I would like to borrow that sentence. Most thoughtful and reasonable people know that by any meaningful measure the United States falls behind almost all other technically advanced countries in the quality of health care that its citizens receive. And most thoughtful and reasonable people know that the cost of health care in the United States is far beyond that of any other technically advanced country.

Given these facts, you might expect that the health insurance industry would be among the first in line to support meaningful, careful health-care reform, but not so. The health insurance industry is instead spending hundreds of millions of dollars in a lobbying effort to head off meaningful health-care reform. Why? Is this simply a bottom-line profit issue? “Don’t be fooled.” Health-care costs continue to rise, seemingly inexorably. We can’t afford to let things continue as they are. Don’t be fooled indeed.

Kenneth Hammond is a resident of Macon.