Contact Information: Contact: Henry Stimpson Stimpson Communications 508-647-0705 Henry@StimpsonCommunications.com Jim Edholm Business Benefits Insurance 978-474-4730 jedholm@bbibenefits.com
Healthcare Reform: Congress Is Blowing Its Chance, Business Benefits Insurance's Edholm Says
Fixing What's Not Broken, Ignoring What Is
| Source: Business Benefits Insurance
ANDOVER, MA--(Marketwire - June 29, 2009) - Congress is botching healthcare reform, says
expert Jim Edholm, president of Business Benefits Insurance, in Andover,
Mass.
"They're blowing it, 'fixing' stuff that isn't broken and ignoring stuff
that is," he says.
A report from one of the nation's leading consultants, McKinsey, says the
US needs to focus on three factors: responsible personal health-related
decisions, increased market transparency, and simplified administration.
"Heard anything about any of those topics coming out of Washington? Nope,
hardly a word," Edholm says.
Professor Malcolm Sparrow of Harvard says fraud alone may be $500 billion
per year. Sen. Tom Cockburn (R-OK) says one-third of all spending is in
defensive medicine, paperwork and fraud ($800 billion).
Then there's outright stupidity, Edholm says. New York Medicaid recently
paid maternity benefits to 55 men. Two hundred thousand Americans a year
die from infections and errors that occur in hospitals.
"If we could save half of the fraud ($250 billion/year) and cut the number
of unnecessary deaths (hundreds of billions per year), could we solve the
problems of the uninsured?"
Only the government can address the cost of helping hospitals correct their
errors, eliminate fraud and save lives, according to Edholm. Only the
government can mandate transparency in cost and quality reporting to
facilitate smarter health consumption by Americans. Only the government can
mandate uniform paperwork forms to simplify administration and reduce cost.
Only the government can attack the dual task of protecting the rights of
the injured while minimizing nuisance suits. Only the government can launch
a "stay healthy" program on the scale of the anti-smoking campaigns of the
'60s through the '80s.
"Is that what Congress is fixing?" Edholm asks. "No. They're fighting
over who's going to pay the bill and whether or not there'll be a 'public
plan.' How does the name on the bottom of the check lower the underlying
cost? Simplify administration? Increase transparency?
"Right now there are needs that only the government can meet, behaviors
that only the government can mandate, and problems that only the government
can solve. Let's work on those needs, those problems.
"We have the best healthcare in the world, and I think it makes infinitely
more sense to build on what we have by plugging the gaps than it does to
totally make it over and hope we get it right."
Business Benefits Insurance (www.bbibenefits.com) is an employee benefits
planning firm. Edholm's discussion of healthcare reform on WCAP radio can
be heard on the homepage.
Edholm's benefits blog can be read at http://bbibenefits.wordpress.com.