If Americans were to discover that stakeholders in healthcare are to blame for the ballooning cost of medicine, rather than those who actually provide the care, would you say such transparency is more likely to cause the cost of care to increase or decrease? I say, please share this.
The February 20, 2013 article “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” by Steven Brill took up the entire edition of TIME Magazine.
http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
Near the end of the 36 page article, he says, “Over the past few decades, we’ve enriched the labs, drug companies, medical device makers, hospital administrators and purveyors of CT scans, MRIs, canes and wheelchairs. Meanwhile, we’ve squeezed the doctors who don’t own their own clinics, don’t work as drug or device consultants or don’t otherwise game a system that is so gameable. And of course, we’ve squeezed everyone outside the system who gets stuck with the bills.”
On February 21, 2013, during Mr. Brill’s guest appearance on the Daily Show, host John Stewart said about the TIME article: “I feel like this should be a ‘Silent Spring’ moment in healthcare, because it is shining a light on something that I think people have struggled with but have not been able to articulate the damage that is being done. This is an incredible articulation of that damage.”
http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/22/time-contributor-steven-brill-on-the-daily-show/
Stewart: “… And like you say, the nurses, the doctors, they don’t make the money.”
Brill: “No. It’s not the people who actually do the care. It’s the people who organize the care, who sell the equipment, who sell the drugs, they’re the ones making the money.”
That’s transparency.
Darrell – darrelldk@tx.rr.com
