THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 24, 1994 TAG: 9408240011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: ANOTHER VIEW
SOURCE: By ROSS PEROT
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
America's health-care system - the finest in the world - consists of tens of millions of very complex parts.
It took nine years and $300 million, for example, just to develop and test Mevacor, the pill that reduces cholesterol, and that is but one tiny part of the health-care industry.
Health care is twice the size of the U.S. automobile industry. It is 14 percent of our economy. It impacts every American from birth until death. Successfully reshaping health care is far more complicated than building an aircraft carrier or designing the space shuttle or inventing the atomic bomb.
The Clinton health-care plan was drafted in secret by a talented, well-intentioned group whose leaders had little experience in health care. This plan did not attract widespread support in Congress or with the American people.
Now the Clinton plan is being hurriedly redrafted into a variety of new bills by congressional staffers who have little experience with health care.
Senate leaders are rushing to force a vote in the next few days on bills that have not been read.
Most of these bills include a vast new government bureaucracy to oversee health care.
Moreover, the proposals are being made along strictly partisan lines. The American people have been subjected to propaganda and emotional anecdotes instead of having these ``reforms'' explained to them in a logical and rational manner.
Worse yet, no one can accurately estimate what any of these proposals will cost American taxpayers - except that new health-care costs will be massive.
In 1965, Congress thought the new Medicare program would cost $9 billion by 1990. The actual cost of Medicare in 1990 was $110 billion!
With our $4.6 trillion debt, we can no longer afford to make such mistakes. If you question this, see Page 25 of President Clinton's budget where it is predicted that the next generation of Americans to be born will be taxed at a rate of 82 percent of their income.
Can the U.S. government effectively manage health care for the entire nation?
Consider the nationwide health-care program it manages now - our veterans' hospitals. The services are so poor that only 10 percent of eligible veterans make use of them.
There is a rational way to improve health care to deliver care to the uninsured and keep costs in line:
- Form a bipartisan team of Democrats and Republicans.
- Identify the parts of the health system that need to be improved.
- Bring in leading authorities to design the improvements.
- When this detailed plan has been completed, explain the system carefully to the American people in plain language. Skip the propaganda.
Once a consensus is reached, carefully figure out the cost of these changes and frankly explain how health care will be paid for.
Don't mislead the American people by claiming ``companies will pay for it'' and implying that health care will be free - indeed, it will be the ultimate hidden tax on the ordinary American. Companies will increase their prices to pay the increased costs.
Finally, conduct pilot programs on these improvements to make sure that they work as planned and that their actual costs can be determined.
A logical pilot group would include every member of Congress, every member of the White House staff and all federal employees.
Under the original Clinton plan, the American people were to be the test subjects, with government employees excluded until 1998.
Testing a government-run program on government employees shouldn't impose much of a hardship. They already have an excellent health-benefits program, so they should have good ideas about the operation of a nationwide system.
This would guarantee every citizen that any health-care plan would be debugged, optimized and trouble-free before it is imposed on the entire nation.
Obviously, no one wants the rationing of health-care services and waiting periods of up to 18 months for surgical procedures, two items that mark government-run health-care programs in Europe, Canada and, of course, our own veterans' hospitals.
Once the pilot operation is working successfully, at a cost we can afford, with the American people fully informed of the plan and its costs, the decision to implement these changes nationwide can be made with all the facts on the table and at minimal risk.
Compare this rational approach to the propaganda, emotional appeals and name-calling that are occurring in Washington today.
Democrats and Republicans must work to carefully design, test and price the new health system. Encourage them to go slow, take their time, get it right.
What's the hurry? Let's not destroy health care in a well-intentioned effort to save it.
Remember, the first rule of medicine is ``do no harm.''
The process I have described could take two years or more. Remember, it took nine years to develop Mevacor, just one pill.
This is process that we cannot short-circuit if we want a cost-effective health system that truly benefits the American people.
In the words of the carpenter, ``Measure twice, cut once.'' MEMO: Mr. Perot, independent candidate for president in 1992, is author of
`United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country.'
KEYWORDS: HEALTH CARE REFORM OPINION by CNB