Scare tactics do disservice to debate on health care

Opinion: February 23, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

EDITOR:

One often finds factual errors and distortions in Cal Thomas essays, but his Feb. 18 piece on healthcare trends exceeded all expectations. It began with a quotation from a former politician now associated with a conservative think tank whose leaders have included Dan Quayle and Scooter Libby. It included a scary but false claim that a provision in the recently passed economic stimulus bill “may threaten the lives of many Americans” because “a Washington official will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.”

Let’s begin with some well-documented facts. The life expectancy for Americans and our infant mortality rate are far from the best among the world’s industrialized nations. Medical practice has become so complicated that treatment errors are increasingly common and the “personal touch” in healthcare is getting lost. New procedures and treatments are often adopted on the basis of incomplete research, only to be abandoned after millions of dollars have been wasted. People nearing the end of life who should be at peace among family and friends are spending their last days running up staggering medical costs in high-tech hospitals, but surviving only a bit longer than they otherwise would, at tremendous financial and emotional cost to everyone involved.

Medical costs in the United States continue to grow faster than inflation and are about one-third more per capita, on average, than those of other countries. This problem is projected to get worse rapidly as the baby boomer generation starts to retire. The numbers are so huge that we can hardly imagine them. The total cost of medical services in the now exceeds $2 trillion dollars each year. That drain on our economy interferes with funding for schools, roads, law enforcement and many other important things that must be done with our tax dollars. Comparison with other nations that offer healthcare to everybody and have longer life expectancy than ours shows that we are wasting about one-fourth of that amount, about $500 billion annually. Just imagine how much good can be accomplished if we can capture that excess and put it to other worthwhile uses.

Let’s be honest — some form of “rationing” will be needed, and there must be a national dialogue about how to do it fairly and with respect for humanity. Throwing verbal bombs, as writers sometimes do, doesn’t help us to sort out the hard realities of the situation and honor our values as human beings. I am confident that a comfortable consensus on this matter can be reached, if we think creatively and listen to one another respectfully.

Resolving this tremendous mess will not be easy and will not happen quickly. There is so much complexity, so many vested interests that are profiting from the present non-system, so much that must be communicated to the American people in order to build a national consensus on the best way forward, that it may be next year, or maybe even the year after that, before closure is reached. In the meanwhile, we need to learn as much as possible about the facts, while resisting the spell of ideologues like Cal Thomas.

ROBERT D. GILLETTE MD

Poland