newjerseynewsroom.com

BY IRENE C. CARD and BETSY CHANDLER

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE

We all know how expensive medical care is today. We try to justify the cost by acknowledging that there have been more advances in medical care in the last 40 years than in the entire history of the study of medicine. We readily admit that there are some medications that can eliminate the need for surgery. But how are we going to continue to pay for this? Is health care a privilege or a right? Is there a limit to how much health care one can expect to receive?

There is a fairly simple solution to save a great deal of money. To write this article, I read so many acronyms that I had to write up a separate sheet describing all of them.

There is a massive cost savings in electronic medical records. This is known as EHR – electronic health records. The vast majority of doctors have not yet adopted the standardized use of electronic health records. This allows doctors, hospitals, rehab facilities, skilled nursing homes and other health care providers to be able to share health information about a patient between each other electronically. As of 2010, the percentage of physicians who have fully functional systems for electronic health records (EHR) ranged from only 9.7 percent to 27.2 percent.

On a personal note, our son-in-law who lived in California was dealing with Stage 3 colon cancer when he had to journey to a family emergency in Illinois. While in Illinois, he had to be hospitalized. Because he was being treated where they had electronic medical records, the hospital in Illinois was able to retrieve his complete medical history which eliminated the need for them to order tests that had recently been done. This is a real plus for the patient as we all know some of these tests aren’t too pleasant. You can quickly see how the savings can add up. Aside from that, the quality of care has now improved dramatically, very quickly.

On the flip side of the positive benefits of EHR, we have the Health Information and Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009(HITECH Act) which allows all of the sharing of medical information - - not only to medical providers but also to the Government. With a single-payer healthcare system, this will enable the government to easily ration care.

Many citizens do not like the idea of a Single-Payer system for health care as is being proposed by the current Administration in Washington. But what do you think Medicare is? Medicare is a single-payer health care system with the Government picking up the tab. Never forget who the government is. It is you and me! “We the people.”

By the year 2030, just 19 years from now, there will be 72.1 million seniors in the United States. That is almost twice as many as in 2007. There is simply no way that Medicare can continue on its current path. Care will certainly have to be rationed. We might not like it, but with statistics like this, what is the alternative?