When will a real comprehensive Health Care Plan be delivered?
It’s a wonder how health care got minimal coverage during last year’s presidential campaign. During the 2019 Democrat candidates’ debates, we got to hear Senator Elizabeth Warren’s new “Medicare for All” plan, followed by Bernie Sanders’ call for a single payor system. But after closer examination, many asked how can we expand Medicare when we can’t even afford it now due to the exorbitant costs needed to cover all residents and the estimated huge tax increases to pay for it all. During which time, Sanders’ state of Vermont abandoned in 2014 its multi-year effort to implement America’s first statewide single-payer health system. When the debates were over in early 2020, most editorials deemed these plans unworkable, while COVID-19 completely detracted our attention on how we would overcome this dreadful virus and the resulting pandemic.
More so, once Vice President Biden and President Trump won their respective party’s nomination in 2020, the major focus was on how to deal with the continuing surge in COVID-19 infection rates, hospitalizations and associated deaths. In hindsight, it is totally understandable how the need for a new and workable health care agenda would become a backseat priority. Nevertheless, we need to refocus on: access to quality medical care; advancing research and teaching; overcoming social determinants that negatively impact the health status of many patient populations; continuing to deal with the opioid crisis; and reducing pharmaceutical costs. All still warrant a national health care plan that will provide adequate coverage at a reasonable cost and eventually improve Americans’ overall health.
The Republicans seem to have lost their way on health care with only trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since its inception in 2010. The Trump administration continued this campaign with no real substantive replacement plan, and now the new Biden administration has begun to shape its healthcare agenda by lifting certain restrictions on abortion funding and relaunching ACA insurance sign-ups, and overall, through Executive Orders and Actions, trying to quickly reconstruct the ACA after it was weakened by the former Trump administration. And there is still the unknown fate of the ACA, as the Supreme Court will soon be weighing its validity. This is all by way of saying that no new formidable health care plan has been put forth by either political party.
COVID-19 has certainly upended most health care providers’ strategic plans, but with new insights on rendering care -- especially through telemedicine, advances in epidemiology, and a public outcry for more value-based medical care -- we need a more concerted effort in establishing something beyond an actuarial law, such as the ACA. As health care providers, we need to think about this going forward, while also dealing with the daily responsibilities we share in providing high-quality and passionate care to all of our patients. We also need to find the time and energy to collaborate with our respective professional associations and societies, along with our elected representatives, in conceptualizing an effective and practical new national health care plan.
Just a gentle reminder to all concerned…