Sometimes I question my sanity. For example, on the subject of health care reform, I feel oftentimes that I’m the only person who sees core inflation and inefficiencies in the system as a bigger problem than those tossing around the “universal health care” buzz phrases.
Well, apparently, I’m not the only person. Specifically, check out this op-ed in The Day, written by an OBGYN:
One of the most insidious catalysts for increasing health care costs is the lack of a definitive standard of care. This opens the door to malpractice liability (“you didn’t do enough”), defensive testing and treatment (“I did do enough”), and the over-prescription of pharmaceutical treatments (“How could you say I didn’t do enough if I gave you a pill?”)
On the administrative side, a lack of standardization in care engenders a lack of standardization in billing, measuring, and accounting for that care. The permutations of systems of care with systems of accounting have lead to the exponential growth of overall system complexity.
Rather than enable individual physicians the flexibility to determine the most appropriate course of treatment or prevention, the system encourages reactive and defensive medicine, practices which only enhance the inflation of health care costs.
Of course, the logical next steps in that thought process are a discussion of what standard of care is to be provided, and are we willing as a society to pay that expense….