Healthcare debate remains volatile.  The summer saw some really passionate debates.  Still the country remains divided.

So what is coming down the pipe line.  Is it something we are going to like?

CNBC had a very good panel assembled from different political ideologies.  Following are the key points.

It is a Must Watch.

Here are some of the key points:

  • The attendees were CEO of Well Point, Governor of Michigan, Sen. Bill Frist, Head of AMA, CEO of Eli-Lily, and one more.
  • They all agreed on that universal access is key and so is the cost reduction.
  • Sen Frist said that we have over 30% which is over 500 billion dollar of cost over and then why are we negotiating for 100 billion over 10 years period.  That is nothing.
  • People without insurance has shorter livespan.
  • Saying everyone has access is disingenuous as medicaid people are not accepted by lots of doctors.
  • Our system is willing to spend hundreds of thousand to save one person’s life but is not willing to spend few dollars to save many.
  • Generic drugs are substantially cheaper in America compared to other countries where brand names are cheaper
  • We have healthcare sector not healthcare system. We need to build a system.
  • CEO of WellPoint said it well on Health IT:  We should not automate the bad processes.  We should start from scratch
  • Healthcare is one sixth of the economy and yet the it is the most undeveloped field in IT said Sen Frist.
  • It is our living style…one out of two women and one out of three men are prne to cancer.
  • Elimination of cancer has economic impact of $50 trillion dollars
  • Reducing the weight to national average of year 91 would have health impact that would save about 1 trillion dollars.
  • American healthcare is sought by people from overseas..it is world class for rich.
  • Salaried physicians have less  motivation to practice wasteful medicine.
  • Primary care shall be incentivised.

I would like to point here that I have been saying some of these things for a year now.  For example, we need to redesign IT system as the current one are no good, that we can save about $500 billion in healtcare cost as that is waste we have, and that primary care should be made responsible for wellness.  We also have said that there ought to be a private and public partnership.  And we have made those proposals in the previous articles.

It is great that their is bipartisan support for our ideas….and we were the first to bring it forward.