[Peace-discuss] FW: How ACA Fuels Corporatization of American Health Care

[David Johnson via Peace-discuss]

From: David Sladky [mailto:tanstl at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2014 1:29 PM
Subject: How ACA Fuels Corporatization of American Health Care

 


How ACA Fuels Corporatization of American Health Care 


Thursday, 27 November 2014 11:12 By Dr. Philip Caper
<http://www.truth-out.org/author/itemlist/user/48755> , Bangor Daily News
<http://bangordailynews.com/2014/11/20/health/blogs-and-columns/how-aca-fuel
s-corporatization-of-american-health-care/print/>  | Op-Ed

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/27696-how-aca-fuels-corporatization-of
-american-health-care

*	 

A new Harvard study <http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1407373>  has
found that Americans' trust in the medical profession has dropped
dramatically in recent years and lags behind that in many other wealthy
countries. At the same time, doctors are becoming increasingly unhappy
<http://bangordailynews.com/2014/03/20/health/with-hippocratic-oath-doctors-
pledge-allegiance-to-patients-not-profits/print/>  with our profession. In
his new memoir, " Doctored
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/books/in-doctored-sandeep-jauhar-examines
-a-broken-system.html> ," Dr. Sandeep Jauhar eloquently explains why: More
and more doctors are coming to view our profession as just another job.
We now have a situation where patients are losing confidence in their
doctors, while doctors are losing confidence in our ability to do the right
thing for our patients. We have a health care system becoming more hostile
to doctors and patients and more friendly to health care corporations.
These trends are collateral damage caused by another trend: our increasingly
corporatized, commodified and commercialized U.S. health care "industry"
that is being put into hyper drive by the Affordable Care Act. The ACA is
accelerating an ongoing wave of hospital consolidations and acquisition of
doctors' practices by large corporations, such as Eastern Maine Healthcare
Systems and MaineHealth.
As we continue down this road, doctors see our clinical autonomy
disappearing
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/opinion/how-medical-care-is-being-corrupt
ed.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad>  as more and more of us
become corporate employees subject to pressure to meet corporate financial
goals that often differ from what is best for our patients. Patients sense
that pressure as they are rushed through exams and are subject to more tests
and procedures
<http://bangordailynews.com/2014/04/17/health/the-business-interests-behind-
americas-costly-medical-care/print/> , some of them of questionable clinical
value. They can almost hear the cash registers ringing as they move through
their doctors' offices, as more wealth is transferred from patients to those
selling health care goods and services.
Why is American medicine, once the crown jewel of American professionalism
and a proud and respected calling, becoming just another commercial
enterprise
<http://bangordailynews.com/2011/10/20/health/is-medical-care-a-good-busines
s/?ref=search> ? In his 2010 book " Hijacked
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-geyman/hijacked-stolen-health-ca_b_66090
4.html> ," Dr. John Geyman, chairman emeritus of the department of family
practice at the University of Washington, explains how during the year-long
Congressional debate leading up to enactment of the ACA, the interests of
the public, including doctors and patients, were subverted to those of large
health care corporations.
The highjacking of health care reform is paying off handsomely. Robert Pear
of the New York Times recently described
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/us/politics/health-law-turns-obama-and-in
surers-into-allies.html?_r=0>  how the federal government and the commercial
health insurance industry have morphed into one big fan club for the ACA. He
quotes the libertarian Cato Institute's Michael Cannon explaining that since
the ACA's enactment, "Insurers and the government have developed a symbiotic
relationship, nurtured by tens of billions of dollars that flow from the
federal Treasury to insurers each year."
Pear goes on to report that, "Since Mr. Obama signed the law, share prices
for four of the major insurance companies - Aetna, Cigna, Humana
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/humana_inc/index.html
?inline=nyt-org> and UnitedHealth - have more than doubled, while the
Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has increased about 70 percent."
Pharmaceutical companies also have done very well. The ACA contains no
authority for the government to negotiate pharmaceutical prices but
continues the federal prohibition on the importation by U.S. residents of
lower priced prescription drugs from many foreign countries.
This situation won't change anytime soon. Congress is gridlocked. What is
widely recognized as a drafting error in the ACA - which, in saner times,
could have been fixed quickly without attracting much attention - is now
headed to the Supreme Court
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/opinion/law-in-the-raw.html?action=click&
contentCollection=College%252520Football&module=MostEmailed&version> .
Of course, health care is just one of many examples in which the welfare of
corporations has been put ahead of the interests of the public, but it may
be the poster child. Health care is now more than a sixth of our economy,
and human lives and dollars are at stake.
Corporate stranglehold of our public policy traces back to the increasingly
corrupt way our political campaigns are financed. The recent midterm
elections were a stark reminder of that, setting record levels for corporate
spending, even on local races, and saturating voters with negative,
intrusive and often obnoxious messages.
What's at stake is the future of health care and many other issues that will
determine what kind of a country our children will live in. That future
depends on how active and informed the public is willing to become in
electing public officials who place the welfare of their constituents ahead
of the wishes of their corporate contributors.
The results of the recent elections are not encouraging. But what's becoming
clearer is that our struggle is not between Democrats and Republicans,
liberals and conservatives, or occupiers and tea partiers. It is between
real American people and corporations.
I, for one, intend to continue pointing that out. That's where our attention
should be focused.


Dr. Philip Caper

Physician Philip Caper of Brooklin is a founding board member of Maine
AllCare, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group committed to making health care in
Maine universal, accessible and affordable for all. He can be reached at
pcpcaper21 at gmail.com.



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