Quality Medical Care

There’s a lot of talk about the quality of medical care in the United States these days. Some say it’s terrible, and some say it’s the best in the world. Having just experienced two surgeries and a brief hospital stay (see my earlier post on protecting your skin), let me make a few observations on health care.

I believe our health care is the best in the world if you have decent insurance coverage or you have plenty of money to pay for expensive treatments. I don’t think the issue is quality so much as it is availability. I have great insurance coverage, so I have good quality care. Those whose coverage isn’t very good don’t always get the best care, or are very limited in their choices. So availability is limited for many people.

The uninsured do get some sort of coverage, but it is inadequate. What we need is not health care reform, but insurance reform and tort reform (as I’ve mentioned in earlier posts). But we have to do it in such a way that quality care is available to most people, not just those fortunate enough to have good insurance plans. Let’s hope our politicians will ignore special interests and do the right thing. We can tap into the experience of most industrialized nations and avoid their mistakes and take the best of their systems. Pray that our leaders in Washington do the right thing and don’t destroy what we already have.