(Intro by Dylan Ratigan) On our second day of the Florida leg of the 30 Million Jobs tour, we decided to focus on one thing — health care. Millions of people choose to retire to Florida, and across the country, millions of aging Americans need more and more health care — we're spending tons of money, but we're consistently behind other developed countries not only in overall health, but also quality of care.
So, here's our big question: shouldn't we create a medical system that incentivizes preventative care and healthier living, rather than treatments and tests?
The barrier to change in the current system is massive, as almost the entire American health care system is focused more on costs and profits than actual care.
It's something we talk about extensively in Greedy Bastards: in the U.S., we don't have a health care system, we have a treatment sales system. The more tests and treatments a doctor can sell, the more money he or she can make in fees — that means there's a financial incentive to order an extra MRI or perform a surgery that may or may not be completely necessary.
This system is commonly called the "fee for service" model for medical practice. That, in turn, is married to an employer-based health insurance monopoly — the combination drives up costs for all of us. (Perhaps that's why we spend more money than any other country worldwide on health care, but come in at #37 in quality of care.)
To discuss the issues with our model "fee for service" healthcare, Dylan was joined by former DNC chair Dr. Howard Dean — he has called "fee for service" the single biggest barrier to controlling health care costs in America. Also in this segment is Charlie Kolb, president of the Committee for Economic Development, which represents a wide variety of major corporations in this country.
CED, the Committee for Economic Development is an independent, nonpartisan organization for business and education leaders dedicated to policy research on the major economic and social issues of our time and the implementation of its recommendations by the public and private sectors.