Senate Democrats Discover the Problem with Health Care - It's Me

By George Lightbourn

I admit that I’m baffled by Healthy Wisconsin, the Senate Democrats’ universal health care plan.  Proponents of the plan have blanketed Wisconsin with promises of great coverage at lower rates.  They’ve been doing their selling with the desperation of a car salesman seeking to unload last year’s models. 

What baffles me was how Healthy Wisconsin could possibly deliver all that the proponents say it can.  If it sounds too good to be true …. 

One disturbing answer might be that they know their plan cannot do all they say it can do.  I’m hoping this is not the case because that would mean that they are willing to gamble our health care simply to score political or ideological points.  I’ll set this line of reason aside for the time being.

So to find out whether their promise could hold up, I was forced to poke my nose into the actuarial reports that they have chosen to make available (there is undoubtedly more detailed analysis that they have chosen not to make public).  I was looking for some estimates of where they believe the savings will emanate. 

In the reports from the Lewin Group, the actuarial firm that specializes in doing analysis for single-payer advocates, I discovered that one of the biggest sources of waste in the current health care system is – me.  Apparently I am a wasteful consumer who, along with others like me, is wasting millions.  It seems that I go to the doctor too often, demand unnecessary prescription drugs and I check into the hospital when I could just as well stay home. 

That’s right, the largest source of savings in Healthy Wisconsin is to be obtained by herding everyone into managed care.  And according to the Lewin Group, fully one-third of the savings from managed care is “due to reduced utilization of health care services.” 

Managed care is the health care euphemism for managed behavior.  They think we need a system with fewer white coats making decisions and more grey suits and green eye shades.

Now I don’t know about you, but I personally do not know anyone who goes out of their way to rub up against the health care system.  It’s typical for me to wait until the last minute to schedule my annual physical.  Also, I’m not particularly keen on taking medication and I will do all that I can to stay the hell out of the hospital. 

I’m lucky, I know that.  I’m in fairly good health.  But I know some people that are not so lucky, and they are clearly the ones causing waste in the system.  Take for instance, a member of my family who has cancer.  She wants the most precise diagnosis possible and she wants her treatment to begin now, not next month.

I know a once-active friend who has had to give up doing anything physical.  It seems he has a degenerative hip that keeps him home and off the golf course and away from the tennis court.  He wants that hip replaced soon and he wants it replaced with a material that will last a long, long time.

I know a couple of young parents who have a child diagnosed with a rare eye disease.  They want their child’s treatment to begin now and they want the treatment to continue as long as necessary to ensure that their son can have a life like every other little boy.

I turns out that these people, along with you and me, are the wasteful ones.  These are the people we need to get into managed care.  Imagine the savings we could reap if they could hold off on their treatment for just a few weeks, or better yet, a few months.  Tack on the savings from continuing to use the drugs that have been just fine for years; no need to go with the latest more expensive drugs, and certainly not the expensive clinical trial cancer drugs.  After all, the cutting edge is expensive.