Live from Chicago
I’m writing this from Chicago, IL. I’m staying on the 25th floor of a nice hotel right near the shore of Lake Michigan. Mostly I’ve been inside, but I have had a chance to eat some great food.
I’ve been here the past few days for the annual symposium of the American Medical Informatics Association. About 2000 people came to the conference to listen to (or give) talks on a variety of topics and to collaborate with colleagues. Many of the talks have been interesting to me, and it’s nice that I have understood a little better this year.
This morning we had a visit from Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, who is the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (and former Utah governor). He was asked to speak because he has put an unprecedented focus on using information technology in health care. It was pretty impressive that he would come. I didn’t realize he is such a great speaker. He seems to really understand the health care sector and emphasized basic principles on how it can be improved. He explained that in the past 50 years, health care has risen from 4% of the GDP to 16%, and that’s not a rate we want to continue.
One person asked his views on government regulation and how much is necessary to improve the health care “system.” He expressed his opinion that on one end of the spectrum you have the Defense Department that clearly should be run by the government and where competition would not be a good thing. On the other end is the food industry where the government does some organizing and regulating but does not control the system. His opinion is that the government should play an organizing role in health care but not own the system. I agree with that.
One part of this strategy is that every local community needs an organization dedicated to improving health-care quality. This should be a non-profit group that involves all interested groups–physicians, health-care organizations, consumers, insurers, etc. They would be in charge of measuring and improving health-care quality and coordinating with other groups around the country. Physicians would theoretically be motivated to improve their care, and consumers would get the advantage of being able to compare how one physician/clinic/hospital follows quality standards versus another.
Probably the most impressive part of his speech was when an attendee expressed concern that nurse practitioners’ roles had been overlooked. They are sort of like doctors because they can prescribe medications, etc., but he had just focused on physicians. Leavitt smiled and stated that he had not thought about that and would make a note of it. How many times do you see political leaders humbly admit they are wrong rather than come up with some wordy explanation to avoid looking bad?
It’s fun being a student and getting exposure to what’s happening nationwide in this field.
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November 14th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I agree. One of the main reasons that health care costs in the U.S. have risen so rapidly is because government became involved in the first place. As that intervention continues to distort free market practices that would normally encourage competition and accountability, people argue that the government should do something about it. But the problem is that the more government tries to do something about it, the more costs and prices rise; it’s a deadly spiral effect.
After the Great Depression, the government put a cap on workers’ salaries, so companies started offering health care benefits as an added incentive to get the best workers. Fast forward to today, and we’ve got an employer-based health care system, which means that medical practitioners have little accountability to patients for costs. Patients usually can’t shop around for the best quality care for the lowest price. But this is only one reason why costs are inflating so quickly.
The government does have a role to help organize things, like Sec. Leavitt said, but the less it regulates the better.
I also agree that we need more humble leaders who are willing to admit their mistakes or lack of knowledge. Maybe we should start a Leavitt for president campaign.