Commentary: We need bottom-up health care reform

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 — aka: the Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare or ACA. — was intended to make health care more affordable and accessible.

Unfortunately, the ACA will not achieve either goal. I have no doubt the president and Democrats that passed the law had good intentions, but the leadership from both parties has been dreadful on the important subject of health care reform.

Why is bipartisanship and cooperation considered bad politics? The Simpson/Boles Commission had some good bipartisan ideas. Perfect no, but compromise never is for those on each side.

The wealthy will need to pay more, no doubt, but mainly because of the cost of health care, particularly Medicare. We all will need to pay more and it will be easier in a better functioning economy where everyone is earning more money.

Medicare as we know it is not sustainable and must be incorporated into health care reform and a new ACA.

The book “Your Health Matters in 2006” (before the ACA) reported a predicted shortage of 40,000 medical doctors by 2020. We need to encourage our “best and brightest” to consider the medical profession! More supply can help make care more affordable and accessible. Just being covered by insurance does not guarantee access to health care.

In Massachusetts with its health insurance exchange program, there is a 60-day wait for new patients to see a doctor.

Minnesota has already done a great job providing access to health care. With Minnesota Care and MCHA, anyone that wants coverage can get it.

The money wasted to create these “health insurance exchanges” could be used to educate the future physicians we need — $40 million spent on the unnecessary health insurance exchange in Minnesota alone.

Health care is more than a right. It is a responsibility, first to ourselves and our family and then to our community.

A bottom-up approach will work better than top-down.

Big government and big insurance is not working. Both have tried to mask the cost of care. We need transparency.

Government regulators are typically obsessed with fee disclosure except when it comes to health care. Other health-related costs have decreased when people know the price.

Government and insurance should play limited roles, assisting those in need and spreading risk for which we cannot budget.

The best way to address health care is for employers and citizens in communities to work in cooperation with the local health care providers. Community health cooperatives are better means to facilitate the doctor/patient relationship than federal or even state government.

There are those that want to limit choices and personal responsibility and eventually have one plan for all. This approach may work for those generally healthy, but has proven not so well for many of those sick or hurt.

Getting health care reform right is crucial for accessibility and affordability for us all. This is the domestic crisis issue of our times.

I will vote for those that will work on bipartisan health care reform that truly addresses affordability and accessibility. Please join me.

Peter Sorensen owns Sorensen Financial Services.

Tags: opinion, commentaries