The front page of the latest issue of Time ® says, “It’s All About Prevention.” “The first step toward containing health care costs is to avoid getting sick. Here’s what it takes.”
Do you wonder why all of a sudden health and wellness is an in thing; it is a smart idea, and it may save money some day. However, the real reason is that the administration is counting on wellness initiatives to help fund expanded health care in America. The logic sounds quite reasonable; if people are healthier, they will consume less health care now and in the future. The problem is that it is mostly in the future to the extent it happens at all. It certainly does not save money in 2010, 2011, or 2012. The financing estimates prepared for the Obama administration simply do not add up just like the cost of Medicare drug coverage did not add up, or Medicare for that matter and just like the Massachusetts health care experiment failed to take into consideration that covering more people meant generating more costs.
In short the selling job is in full motion, the facts be damned, full speed ahead to health care reform by October. Health care reform within the context of the current Congress may represent a very radical change in our system. It will never be reversed once enacted and we had better be sure we get it right. To date it is more a game of getting it fast. Americans need to ask the hard questions about what changes will mean what they will cost and how they will actually be paid for.
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