07/ 25/ 2007
We believe that it's important for our members to hear a variety of viewpoints on important small-business concerns. In this issue, Oklahoma's Sen. Tom Coburn discusses his plan to improve access to health care for all.
As a former small-business owner and a practicing physician, I know that you have few choices in health benefits, and I've seen the costs of those benefits rise three times as fast as the wages paid to employees. If American businesses want to stay competitive, it's time for fundamental change in our health-care system.
That change is coming, and it's up to us to decide what that looks like. We can fall back on a European-style government system where a Washington bureaucrat will decide what health services we get instead of us and our doctors. Or we can achieve universal health-care access in a way that's truly American--applying the values of competition, innovation and personal choice that cause every other sector of our economy to thrive.
Small businesses prove every day that American innovation works to deliver a better product at a better price. In 1908 Henry Ford made a car for $850; eight years later, he produced a better model for $360. You can buy a new plasma TV today for half the price of a year ago. Can the same thing happen in the health-care market?
It already does. Duke University designed a new congestive heart failure treatment program; patients got higher satisfaction, saw better outcomes, and it cost 32 percent less than traditional treatments. Yet another example: Lasik eye surgery costs have dropped by 20 percent since the procedure was approved.
Competition and choice can work in health care--imagine unlocking their full potential. I recently introduced the Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act, S. 1019, to give all Americans the ability to buy the health benefits of their choice in a vibrant health-care market. Rather than patients appealing denials of care or waiting to see a health-care provider, insurance companies and doctors would compete for our business as patients.
Instead of continuing to force businesses to shoulder health-care costs, why shouldn't your employees buy insurance from the same place Fortune 500 company employees do? The Universal Choice and Access Act outlines a bold plan for reform that puts individuals in charge to preserve access, affordability and choice:
- Creates a culture of wellness through proven health-marketing strategies that emphasize prevention behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, smoking cessation and early disease screening.
- Gives every American family a $5,000 check from the Treasury Department to buy their own portable health plan, instead of tax breaks that favor the wealthy.
- Allows Americans to take advantage of newer and better insurance products, wherever they choose, across state lines. Insurers in some states charge six times as much as those in other states.
- Ensures that health-care dollars get spent on patients--nearly one out of three dollars today do not--by reducing inefficiencies through commonsense medical-liability reform, embracing market-driven health information technology and eliminating cost-shifting between those who purchase health insurance and those who don't.
- Gives dignity and choice to Americans enrolled in the Medicare and Medicaid programs while ensuring these programs exist for future generations.
The Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act is designed to begin a national discussion on health care. I hope that you'll read about it at www.coburn.senate.gov and share your feedback with me.
NFIB wants your feedback on this plan. Send your comments to feedback@mybusinessmag.com.
