Health Care Reform? We Haven't Even Started...

For months we've been inundated by what the media refers to as the 'Health Care Debate'; politicians, lobbyists, tea-party protesters, and media pundits trying to influence how we're going to achieve health care reform. Well, we haven't even scratched the surface. To be honest we haven't even begun talking about true health care reform, merely health insurance reform. And while there have been some modest proposals and a bit of discussion outside the realm of health insurance, the real debate that needs to occur has largely been relegated to the sideline.

With both houses of congress actually making moves to get bills out of committee and onto the floor, it is crucial to remember that when a health insurance reform bill passes, and one will, the job is not yet done. While we may actually see some fairly meaningful insurance reform occurring by 2013, the real change that needs to take place will take decades and will depend not on the commitment of the Obama administration, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, or any other individual or group of politicians, it will depend on the public's ability to continue to demand the change that the majority of population knows is necessary.

So what really needs to occur in order for this painstaking health insurance reform push to mean anything? I'm going to break it down from my perspective across a series of posts in the next few days. In my opinion, true health care reform needs to occur in three ways: (1) health insurance reform, (2) health care delivery reform, (3) food reform.

Health Insurance Reform Includes...

• Universal Coverage and no exemptions based on pre-existing conditions
• A robust public option and state-based experiments in single-payer systems
• An inclusive, national insurance exchange
  
• Personal and employer mandates
• Death panels
  
• Subsidies for low-income populations and tax-exemptions for small businesses
• Reduction in insurance overhead costs and cost-saving measures to Medicare

Health Delivery Reform Includes...

• Reduction in prescription drug costs and greater incentives towards use of generics
• Payment method alterations and the elimination of 'fee-for-service'
• Movement towards group practice and local/regional coordination of care
• Increase in and incentives for primary care doctors and nurse practitioners; reduction in specialists
• Socialist-Fascist bureaucrats to the staff the death panels
• Effective use of deductibles to control unnecessary spending
• Tort reform and medical courts to reduce 'defensive' medicine
  

Food Reform Includes...

• Increase in food labeling measures for nutrition facts and ingredients
  
• Tighter quality controls, greater transparency, and decentralization of the meat-processing industry
• Experimental taxes on sugary drinks and other unhealthy foods
• Greater nutrition education and other measures to counteract the obesity epidemic
• Higher taxes on the overweight and obese (that's 2/3 of the population you know)
  

Can you spot the outliers in each set of reforms? In my next three posts I'll attempt to break down and expand upon each step in the process. We'll also ponder how it is that Fox News can manage be such stalwart defenders of the public's interest... a truly amazing news organization they are.