Health Care Reform and the Yin and Yang of Health Care

A health care reform plan is being crafted in Washington that would require all Americans to carry health insurance and would help families making less than $88,000 pay the premiums. Employers would also have to pay into the system. President Barack Obama said the final legislation must:

Rein in costs
Guarantee choice of health plans and medical providers
Ensure that all Americans have access to affordable coverage

Accomplishing the choice and access to affordable coverage is relatively easy compared to reining in costs. Legislating provisions of public and private health plans to guarantee choice and eliminating discriminatory practice that exclude certain individuals, and providing government subsidies are all very doable . But the cost part is much trickier and here is where the Yin and Yang of health care takes over.

The focus on health care reform is on the health care system. However, the power force behind the health care system is the health care industry. The system and the industry represent the yin and yang of health care. The health care industry consists or the many organizations that provide health care related products and services. Each of these organizations, under the free enterprise system that we so cherish in America, work very hard to grow revenues and profits. As these organizations achieve their revenue growth targets, their collective success adds to the cost of the health care system. To put in succinctly, every dollar of cost to the health care system is a dollar of revenue to the health care industry. In essence, the health care industry collectively will do everything in its power to preserve and defend its revenue flow. The key question to ask when one hears that costs will be reduced is who will see a reduction in revenue?

There is a lot of vested interest by the collective players that comprise the health care industry in the unregulated status quo. Its going to take a lot of clout to move this very powerful and entrenched force. We will see in the coming months how this issue will be dealt with.