Letters editor, The Australian
Commentators, such as Norman Ornstein of American Enterprise Institute, have observed that the budget for health care in the US rose to seventeen percent of GDP in 2008. A consequence is that 17% of their paid workforce have vested interests in preserving the status quo. Yet, President Obama’s mission on health care reform (‘Obama sets facts straight on health’, 11/9) is based on “I will not accept the status quo as a solution.”
Within our disjointed and dysfunctional health care system, also, it seems obvious that many jobs will be sacrificed to reforms. One example is provided in the recent report (‘Hospitals chase private cash as patients urged to use insurance’, 11/9) that public hospitals are “hiring dedicated staff to ask patients to fill out forms electing to be treated privately.”
Both Mr Obama and Mr Rudd will have to use political skills, of the kind seldom seen outside times of war, to convince many ordinary salary earners that their mortgages will have to play second fiddle to “efficiencies”. That’s not to say the task is impossible, it just requires some careful thought. Perhaps, rather than seeking to apply the blowtorch, it may be better to let the sunlight illuminate all of the arcane processes of funding and payments, so mere consumers can see what’s going on.
September 12, 2009
Shining the light on health care funding
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