Last year, Americans spent almost $750 billion on health care-more than twice the amount dedicated to education or defense-and, by 1995, the bill could hit $1.1 trillion. Yet about 36 million Americans have no medical insurance and are just one major illness away from financial catastrophe.
To exacerbate the problem, medical researchers have just concluded that one out of every 250 Americans soon will be HIV positive, and Alzheimer`s disease is becoming epidemic among the elderly.
It is a political and sociological mess defined by talk-show host Phil Donahue as ”a Byzantine time bomb,” and a subject he will try to illuminate Wednesday, when PBS airs his two-hour special, ”Condition Critical: The American Health Care Forum” (9 to 10 p.m., WTTW-Ch. 11).
Donahue, who will be host of the special, which was taped before a studio audience, said the health-care problem goes far beyond the hospital and the doctor`s office.
”This also is about jobs,” he said. ”Automakers are taking plants out of the country because they can`t afford the high cost of medical insurance for their workers here, and small businesses are just being squeezed out. The price of a car is increased by $600 to $700 just by the price of health insurance. It`s killing us in every direction; it`s just killing us.”
But as with many national scandals, he said ignorance remains the ultimate shield behind which they can function.
”If I were to ask you what kind of coverage you have, it`s probable that you don`t have a lot of information,” Donahue said.
”Can you get a nose job under your policy? If you can`t get rhinoplasty as cosmetic surgery, can you claim you`ve got a deviated septum or that you snore at night? Does this bring you into the tent of coverage?
”What is the maximum you have to pay, as in deductible, and on what surgeries and on what medical treatments?” he said. ”More than that, when does your health-care coverage end? At what number, and for what catastrophic disease, does the meter on your policy expire and your home and all your personal assets become vulnerable?”
”We have real, live, honest, patriotic, tax-paying Americans who raised their kids to be responsible, who cut their grass, who are kind and helpful to their neighbors, who have never been late for work, and they`re standing there absolutely stripped of all their worldly possessions because of a catastrophic illness that could not be anticipated,” he said.
Donahue said insurers are not the only culprits in a health-care system gone berserk. Doctors also have expensive axes to grind.
”How much is it costing us because of the conflict of interest that ensues from doctors owning facilities which do testing?” Donahue said.
”If I`m a doctor and I have a piece of the Acme Lab and you come to me as a patient, I enhance my income if I send you to my testing lab.
”Not only that, but if I go to medical school and serve my residency and internship learning how to do hysterectomies while my wife waits on tables to support me, when I finally get my degree and hang out my shingle, I guarantee you, I`m going to do hysterectomies.”
Donahue said he and executive producer Stephen D. Atlas will try to inspire a solution by educating and rallying the TV audience, and by examining all of the options set forth by various constituencies.
”Something this big cannot be resolved without the coalition and collective will of an informed community of consumers,” he said. ”It is to that end that this program is being produced, and our hope is to make a modest contribution toward the understanding of this herculean problem.”
