New Blood: Thankfulness Amidst Challenges to Ideal US Health Reform

It seems that most people are unhappy about the current status of the health reform. Concerns are growing that the Senate bill will stimulate a large increase in premiums for everyone, while still leaving holes by which insurance companies can drop coverage on certain patients.

In total, for all the wrangling and political capital spent, it seems that an opportunity may be missed to introduce some uniformity into our fragmented system. It's estimated that over ten million people will still remain uninsured even after the reform, and navigating the complex health care system will be little easier than it is now for most Americans. While the country decided that construction and maintenance of the most advanced highway system in the world should not be the individual responsibility of you and I (in large part because the highway system was necessary for military functions), it seems we are still deeply split on whose responsibility preventing, or treating sickness, should be. Ultimately, you'll still have to fend for yourself, if you want to keep yourself as healthy as you can be, or get the best possible care when you need it.

Stepping back for a moment, however, I want to share this anecdote. Earlier this week, I was speaking with a friend in Bucharest, Romania. Romania is not the country we all think of from the days of the Iron Curtain, but rather a rapidly developing member of the European Union where, in Bucharest, it can be as much to rent an apt as in NYC these days. A relative of his wife had an aneurysm which ruptured. Without a basic blood transfusion, he would have died. In order to save him, my friend had to round up people from his office to come to the hospital and donate blood on the spot, till the hospital could find a match.

In our country, no matter how difficult the medical billing, no matter the challenges you have with scheduling, when you need a blood transfusion, you will almost always get one. Like the highways, the collective of our country decided there should be a national system Blood Banking system, led by organizations like the American Red Cross, who work hand-in-hand with government at multiple levels.

No one is going to be entirely happy with America's Affordable Health Choices Act. In a country and states that cannot even replicate the construction and operation of high speed rails you can find in Asia or Europe, how could anyone expect that this bill could be anything more than a compromise, that is iterated over time? The pros of a compromise are that it's less likely to create severe damage compared to a more decisive experimental approach; the cons-- it has no hope of fixing ALL the problems on its own.

Like the Red Cross did for Blood Banking in tandem with government, citizens, social entrepreneurs and larger organizations will need to continue to innovate new systems to improve the Delivery of health care, and Prevention, which move beyond the walls of hospitals and clinics, back into the community and the home. Regardless of the flaws that will inevitably remain in this health insurance reform bill, it will still create some basic improvements rooted in justice and equity:

--Difficult to exclude coverage for people based on pre-existing illnesses, which are sometimes uncontrollable-- i.e. fully or partially genetically based.
--Shifting of resources to, and reimbursement of prevention and wellness, meant to keep the population at large healthy, and reduce long-term care spend.

When considering how disappointed you might feel about the health reform legislation to date, ask yourself if these are two wins you agree with, and can get behind. Ask yourself if you appreciate the fact that if you or your child bleeds out, another person has already put his/ her blood on loaner for you at a hospital nearby. Then, rather than voicing a complaint devoid of a helpful alternative suggestion, hunker down and keep working on systems and policy innovations to create a delivery system for health and wellness that will obviate the need to keep supporting the reactive care system we have in place today. One beautiful thing among all the ugly things about our legislative system, is that you can keep introducing New Blood into the legislation, to improve upon the gaps and mistakes of the past.