By: Ron E. Peck, Esq.
For those who have followed my social media posts in the past, you’ll know that one issue I can’t escape is the constant political rhetoric regarding “healthcare,” and in particular, how politicians (and the general populace) refer to “healthcare” but in fact are referencing health insurance. When they talk about the cost of healthcare, they don’t mean how much the provider charges for the care they provide. Instead, they are referring to the premiums, co-pays, and deductibles for which the patient will be responsible out-of-pocket. Those aren’t the costs of healthcare; they are the costs of health insurance. I’ve said before, and will say again, health insurance can’t stich a cut or reduce a fever. Health insurance isn’t healthcare; it’s one way by which we pay for healthcare.
This point has never been more clearly defined than by the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Note how the national dialogue is no longer about out of pocket expenses. Instead, the public outcry is over a lack of testing kits. People aren’t worried about their deductible; they are worried about being infected, and what they need to do to remain in relatively good health. See how people are focused less on how much a cure “costs” and more about when a cure will exist? Indeed – now that we truly need “health care” and not “health insurance,” people seem to understand what healthcare is, and what it isn’t.
When the dust settles, and the costs are tallied, we will need to determine who pays what to whom. Until that time, however, the priority for all of us is to seek, improve, and prioritize health (our own and others) and healthcare – actual, true, health care – both quality of care, access to care, and effectiveness of care.
Until then, this global crisis has taught us:
With no vaccine available, and a pandemic impacting everyone indiscriminately – from Celebrity Tom Hanks to Taxi Driver Hank Thomas – we suddenly understand that, when push comes to shove, it doesn’t matter who is paying for your healthcare, so much as whether healthcare itself is available. Perhaps this will help us appreciate that only health care is health care, you can’t cure anything with the card in your pocket, and ultimately healthcare is expensive because health care is expensive. It is tragic that it took something this extreme to open eyes and help people understand that on a debate stage we can pretend “health insurance” is healthcare… but when we are sick, only health care is healthcare.