Healthcare reform is the topic of conversation everywhere from the halls of congress to your office break area. The problem is that healthcare costs too much the way we now use it. We are looking for a cost solution. Somewhere along the line, someone developed the notion that by changing the system somehow we can reduce spending. The truth is that the only system change that can accomplish that goal is a rationed healthcare system. We don’t have any more dollars to spend on healthcare. Visits to the doctor over the next ten years will cost more, not less – as will all kinds of tests, surgeries and hospital stays. So if we use the “system fix” approach, someone is going to have to start deciding who gets what care when. That is an awesome responsibility and my guess is that it won’t happen.

 

The truth is, our real healthcare cost problem is self-imposed by the lifestyle we live. We eat too much unhealthy food, too little healthy food, we are no longer active, we drink and smoke too much and we do not really make much of an effort to prevent the stress we all have in our lives from making us sick! Our unhealthy behavior is fueling the epidemic of chronic disease that is responsible for the excess utilization of an otherwise sound system and driving costs through the roof. The “healthiest” way to decrease costs is to decrease the need – and it can be done. Anyone who tells you we cannot change at-risk health behavior and decrease associated costs just does not know how to do it. For any sort of healthcare legislation to succeed we must shift the healthcare management paradigm from claims management to claims PREVENTION. Sadly, to date, prevention elements are sorely lacking in current proposals.

 

There is hope. Our experience here at OMC clearly demonstrates that we can change behavior and reduce healthcare spending working in partnership with our clients. Enlightened employers have seen fit to spend 2% or so of the amount they spend on “sick care” on true health care and have instituted health behavior change interventions in the workplace. We need to make that investment more attractive to employers large and small alike. Senator Harkins has a bill in front of the finance committee right now that does just that. The bill (S.803) would allow employers a 50% tax credit for costs of providing employees with a qualified wellness program that consists of a health awareness and education component, a behavioral change component, and a supportive environment component. OMC encourages your support for this legislation and this prevention-based, behavior change approach to keeping people healthy and controlling medical costs.