Gerry Interviewed by Bill Bennett on AM 1620 Radio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Back by to popular demand, Gerry spent another hour with nationally known health care commentator and expert Bill Bennett, who tackles the toughest issues in health care every week. In this interview, Gerry begins to lay the ground work for transforming health care in Georgia through the private market. A few straight talk highlights:
*We don’t have a heath care crisis in America, we have a health care cost crisis. This is a $2.2 trillion issue. It will take nothing short of transformation to fix it. We have to be aggressive and we have to start now.
*To fix healthcare, we must deconstruct the layers of healthcare costs that have been added over several decades, without destroying the health care quality we all enjoy. We deconstruct it by following the money and comparing the spend to the results.
*We have allowed the bureaucrats and out-of-state large insurance executives to pull the wool over our eyes – they told us that by restricting choice we would save money. What happened is that our costs have gone up dramatically – outpacing inflation – year after year, while they get rich.
*Transparency of costs is key at every level. If we can get a hip replacement at a world renowned, “Four Seasons” like hospital in Singapore for a flat $12,000, we should be able to tell folks how much an ibuprofen tablet will cost them in our local hospitals before they are admitted. If we are not careful our health care industry will suffer some of the same fate as our automobile industry. That would be a great tragedy.
*The incentives must be realigned at the ground level first, before the middlemen add unneeded layers of costs. Instead of rewarding the health care system as we get sicker, the incentives need to be for keeping us well. That means re-prioritizing and re-establishing the relationship between the patient and provider. That is where incentives are needed most and will have the most dramatic impact.
*Patients are consumers and consumers are customers. We ultimately pay the bill, either through our company benefits or out-of-pocket. Customers should know how much things cost. Customers, working with their doctors and pharmacists, should be given ownership and responsibility for their health care. That cannot happen without transparency.
*Let’s start demanding transparency with our taxpayer funded plans; the State of Georgia employees, cities, counties, etc. and educate our employers and policyholders all over the State about how to ask the tough questions.
The interview is archived at http://www.radiosandysprings.com/podcasts/HealtCareSep13.2008.mp3.
Let’s Fix Healthcare, Fix It Now And Fix It Right!