Reichley Column: We don't have a health-care crisis

I was driving up Va. 234 past the speedway today and saw a billboard announcing that the Prince William Hospital is the top-rated orthopedic center in the region. In March, the hospital was awarded
the “HealthGrades 2008 Orthopedic Surgery Excellence Award.”

Some politicians looking to spend more money and get more power are trying to scare us by telling us we have a “health-care crisis.” They insist that hasty action is needed to “fix” the problem.

We have over 16,000 licensed physicians in Virginia.

FindDoc shows 73 primary care physicians in Manassas who take Aetna HMO insurance.

Google finds 31 opticians in a five-mile radius of Manassas.

We have two large hospitals with 342 beds.

Our two hospitals handled over 345,000 outpatient visits, served over 112,000 emergency room patients and performed over 5,100 births (numbers from US News online).

When I tore my retina, I saw an optician and had an operation with a retina specialist the same day. When I had severe back pain, I had access to MRI and other equipment to diagnose the problem.
And when I needed physical therapy, I had a choice of therapists in our area.

We do not have a “health-care” crisis. We have well-trained physicians in almost every conceivable specialty. We have top-rate facilities and the latest equipment. While we have to wait for some tests
and procedures, the wait is nothing compared to countries where they provide government health care. We also have a tremendous selection of drugs for every need or want.

And we are a charitable country. The Virginia Association of Free Clinics Web site lists 54 free clinics in Virginia, including one right in downtown Manassas. These clinics provide treatment for those
who cannot pay for services.

Virginia has a medical insurance plan for poor people, called “FAMIS,” which has very low costs. In fact, most states have such programs. The federal government’s “SCHIP” program provides health
care for children in families making up to three times the poverty level. But many families do not take advantage of these programs, no matter how cheap they are. A lot of the 45 million uninsured are
uninsured by choice, not because there were no affordable insurance plans available.

But our health care isn’t cheap. Our costs are high, because we have so much care available. If you go to the hospital, you might get multiple expensive tests on expensive equipment. If the equipment
wasn’t available, our costs would be less — but our care would be less complete as well.

Our drug costs are high because it seems every day there is a new, more expensive but better drug available to treat our illnesses. You could stick with the drugs we had 10 years ago at the risk of not
getting the best treatment possible. But we all want the “best.” People are living longer because of expensive maintenance drugs that were unavailable at any price a decade ago.

When politicians scare you about “health care” they are really talking about “health-care cost” — and they are usually pushing a new health insurance program that they will control.

If you already have health insurance, and five out of six of us do, be scared of what the politicians will do to your insurance — like tax it to pay for their new program or force you to pay for insurance you
don’t want.

The politicians talk about “controlling costs” — which invariably means cutting expenses by limiting services. Of course, each of us can do that now, by deciding how much money we want to spend for
our care.

But some politicians think they would be better at choosing for you.

Some want to “level” the playing field, by limiting your ability to pay for your own treatment or limiting what treatments are available. They will have to limit services, because when people get free health
care, they will use it far more often, overloading the system.

Obviously, our system is not perfect. But problems with individual providers and hospitals won’t be fixed by replacing the current system with a new government-run system. If you have a broken
windowpane, you don’t tear down your house and build a new one.

There are people without insurance. It must be tempting for them to get “free” health care. But it isn’t free — their neighbors who are paying for their own insurance will pay through their taxes.

Charles Reichley has been a Prince William County resident since 1981. He can be reached at critically thinking@msn.com.