It is no secret that one of the biggest fears that workers have with the prospect of losing their jobs in a tough economy is also losing their health care coverage. We are the only major industrial country where medical coverage is dependent for the most part on where one works. And not only is the health care payment system seriously flawed, but access to health care is a problem in many parts of the country. Since moving to the southwest, I have found that simply finding A doctor to be quite challenging – many doctors are simply not taking on new patients.
And then we have today’s New York Times article, “As Doctors Cater to Looks, Skin Patients Wait”. I think this article exactly illustrates that we have a health care system that is broken. The crux of the issue is that when faced with a choice of treating self-paying patients who want elective procedures like botox treatments and those who might have skin cancer and whose insurance company will reimburse doctors at a much lower level than wealthy patients are willing to pay for cosmetic procedures, dermatologists do botox treatments and people who really need medical care have to wait.
Large corporations have an opportunity to be a hero. These organizations have enough buying power to really effect change in health care in the United States. Things need to change and these organizations could lead it.