A recent CNN article looks at physicians’ feelings about Obamacare (officially known as the Affordable Care Act).
Doctors are divided — as are the rest of us. As of November, about 45% of Americans had a negative view of the law, and about 43% of Americans had a positive view.
The future of our nation’s health care system is now in the hands of Republicans, who will soon control the Presidency and both houses of Congress.
It appears that some 20 million Americans — including quite a few Trump voters — now have health insurance who did not have health insurance before the law was passed. It seems fairly clear that any replacement for Obamacare needs to avoid throwing these Americans back into being uninsured.
It also seems to me that innovation, technological and otherwise, is one of the keys for moving forward. Perhaps the biggest problem with healthcare is that it’s expensive.
Where does the expense come from? It comes from many different sources. It comes from the construction costs of building hospitals and doctors’ offices. It comes from paying the salaries of doctors, nurses, assistants, and administrators. It comes from educating medical professionals. It comes from developing and building medical equipment. It also comes from researching new drugs, complying with government regulations, and administering health insurance.
The more financially efficient our healthcare system is, the lower our overall cost can be. The lower our overall costs, the easier it is to provide healthcare for more Americans, and the cheaper it will be for all of us.
We should be looking to provide decent healthcare for all Americans. We should also be asking ourselves, “Why exactly is healthcare expensive?” and “How can we innovate in ways that will maintain or improve our quality of healthcare, while reducing our overall costs?”
