From: Forbes Commentary By: Regina Herzlinger
09.04.07, 6:00 PM ET
We have turned over $2.2 trillion of our money to those who manage our health care, without holding them accountable. Not surprisingly, these folks–hospitals, insurers, governments–used the money to benefit themselves.
Insurers, hospitals and governments have gotten fat–our bloated health care costs kill the competitiveness of U.S. firms and more than 40 million people are uninsured, mostly because they cannot afford it–while 300,000 people die every few years from medical errors. Arrogant insurance bureaucrats deny people the services they paid for, while many insured find their coverage inadequate for serious illnesses. The uninsured who are charged the very highest prices by our nonprofit, ostensibly “charitable” hospitals are all too often driven to bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, doctors leave the profession in droves because of insurer, hospital and government micromanagement of their activities. Most of the doctors enrolled in my Harvard Business School M.B.A. courses explain, “I can no longer practice medicine.” The powerful grip of the status quo also scares off the entrepreneurs who represent the best hope of transforming this whale.
Only two stakeholders can fix this–you and I. We must take back our money and we must decide how to spend it. We should be buying health insurance for ourselves, using the foregone salaries and mammoth taxes we once turned over to this self-serving crew. Switzerland’s consumer-driven health care system points the way: The Swiss have universal coverage, spend 40% less and enjoy an excellent, private health care system.
We are in a war for control of $2.2 trillion. If we do not win it, our health and economy will go up in flames.
Regina Herzlinger is the first woman to be awarded tenure at the Harvard Business School as the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration. Her new book, Who Killed Health Care? (McGraw-Hill), details the consumer-driven battle plan that can revive our doctors, economy and good health.