Between rising health-care costs and the projected dwindling number of doctors and nurses expected to join the field, the U.S. health-care system is nearing the breaking point.
These were the words of John T. Shea, senior vice president for business development at Bon Secours Health System, parent of Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern.
Shea was the keynote speaker during a business conference on health-care reform sponsored by the Rockland Economic Development Corp. and was part of the REDC”™s annual Connections business conference, which took place recently at the IBM Palisades Executive Conference Center.
Shea cited some very disturbing data as he made his speech.
He said about 1 million families go bankrupt each year because they can”™t pay their medical bills.
He also said 18,000 Americans die each year due to a lack of health insurance.
“And 80 percent of uninsured Americans are employed,” he said to illustrate the high cost of health insurance.
Shea said most other industrialized countries have more efficient health-care systems than the U.S., data show.
He cited a survey of Western democracies in patient satisfaction, safety, effectiveness, equity and efficiency in which the United States ranked last in each of those categories.
Right now, the county is spending about 16 percent of gross domestic product on health-care expenditures. He predicted that figure could reach 17 percent by 2010.
Shea believes that could be the tipping point where legislators and policymakers realize that health care requires drastic reform.
“At some point, we will have to say, ”˜Uncle,”™” he said.
Regarding the shortage of doctors and nurses, Shea said there is a projected 200,000 shortage of physicians expected by 2020, and almost a 1 million nurse shortage by that same time.
He also said American”™s trust in health-care providers dropped to 32 percent in a 2004 survey, down from almost 70 percent in a similar survey conducted in 1970.
Shea said U.S. health care can be changed for the better, but the entire system needs an overhaul.
“This is a system issue, and it”™s always difficult when you”™re trying to reform a system,” he said. “There is no one solution, and anyone who says there is is lying.”
Shea predicted whoever the next president is will likely tackle the Iraq War and the economy primarily in their first term and wait until a second term to try and solve health care.
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