Profound change is needed in the U.S. healthcare system, but it will take real political courage to get it done, said William F. Jessee, MD, president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association, during a keynote speech at the organization's 2008 Annual Conference.
Jessee criticized the "outlandish administrative costs" of healthcare in the United States and said it's shameful that in a nation so wealthy some 45 million people are without health insurance.
He compared U.S. healthcare unfavorably to the healthcare system in Taiwan, which he said is more technologically advanced, better administered and less expensive.
"Taiwan spends only 2 percent of its healthcare dollars on administrative costs, while we spend 30 percent, amounting to over $600 billion," Jessee said. "At the same time, Taiwan is the most technologically advanced healthcare system in the world and everyone has access to care."
Jessee described the healthcare reform challenges facing the next U.S. president as "immense." He assessed the healthcare platforms of both Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and concluded that neither addressed the "real problem."
"Despite the details, neither candidate talks about the real cost of healthcare in the United States," he said. "In our system, it pays more to treat people after they get sick than to keep people healthy. If a physician keeps patients healthy and out of the hospital, it actually reduces that physician's income."
The MGMA has endorsed changes to the nation's medical reimbursement system. Jessee said payment reform should be the core principle of healthcare transformation.
"Performing more procedures should not be a pathway to profit," he said.
Other core healthcare reform principles endorsed by Jessee include (1) universal coverage, (2) administrative simplification, and (3) the alignment of incentives, which would discourage industry players from working at cross-purposes.