Health Care Reform: Flatlined

In a previous post, I mentioned the book Flatlined: Resuscitating American Medicine by Guy L. Clifton, M.D. Dr. Clifton is a neurosurgeon, has practiced medicine for 30 years, took a couple of years off to do an internship on health care reform in Senator Orin Hatch’s office, and is a good, easy-to-read writer. (Who knew a doctor could write that way?)

In my opinion, Dr. Clifton pulls no punches. He distributes blame for our health care mess to all players, including himself, including us (employers and employees). Some of his recommendations seem to make perfect sense. His holistic approach to overhauling our health care system rings true.

As I finished the book, however, I felt disconcerted. Most of his recommendations won’t be adopted, not now. Our health care system is in a mess, but we haven’t reached a crisis that makes reform mandatory, which means that reform will be eventually accomplished under duress. It’s not that we don’t have enough money to fix the system. It’s that most of the players are concerned about losing income (money) being made and losing benefits (money) being received.

I don’t know whether Dr. Clifton has discovered the answer to health care reform. What he says sounds reasonable, but reformation of any kind has a lot of moving parts together with real people, some well-intentioned, some self-serving, some a little of both. It seems likely that the current Congress will pass so-called health care reform, but it’s likely that health care will still be, well, flatlined.

But not to worry. Scientists are working diligently to stop aging or, at least, extend life considerably longer. But won’t that only increase the cost of health care? Not to worry. Scientists think their plan can cure most, perhaps all, diseases. Thus, no need for health care. Read the latest in the New York Times.