The Cost of Medicine

With a great deal of idle time on my hands, I am often struck by strange thoughts while driving down the highway. This is something I have been doing a lot lately. (I mean driving down the highway part, not the strange thoughts. No, on second thought the strange thoughts come a lot lately as well, but oh ... never mind.) The thought that hit me on this particular trip came as I was nearing one of the cigar Meccas of the US, the JR Cigar store in Statesville, NC. I was thinking about loading up on cigars, because the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) appears large on the Congressional radar screen. Without George Bush in the White House to veto that bill again, there is a better than even chance that it will pass and be signed into law. If it does, the tax on cigars will go up significantly in order to fund this program (and my anguish will likewise increase), and "Just Blowing Smoke" will become a lot more expensive for me.

This got me thinking about a different cost of health care however. It is one that will not be picked up by the SCHIP program, or any other government health program. It is also a cost that is not picked up by the health insurance currently provided by my employer, even after my deductible is met. In fact, it is a cost that entirely picked up by me, the consumer. It is also a cost that is directly attributable to the health care provider. This cost has nothing to do with the care provided or the technology required to provide it. In fact, there is plenty of technology available to alleviate the problem, not that it will ever be used. This cost instead is about nothing other than the lack of efficiency in the care provided. It is the cost of waiting.

I know that I have you now. There is none of us out there who has not sat idly, whiling away the hours in a waiting room well past our appointed time. No matter how punctual that we are in showing up to see our health care providers, it is rare indeed if they are equally so in providing such care. For those of us who have, or have had children who cannot get themselves to their appointments (Yeah I know , but you just can't get them to drive themselves to the doctor for at least the first 16 years) that total of wasted hours goes through a significant multiplier, as children require a great deal more care than adults and pediatricians seem even less able at clock management where appointments are concerned. I couldn't help but wonder over the thousands of hours wasted.

- How much the cost to each person or family in lost wages?

- How much cost in lost hours of productivity?

- How much the cost in wasted vacation and personal time?

- How much the cost in frustration, aggravation, and sanity?

- What is the cost to the consumer, their employer, and the nation based on any realistic pay scale?

My guess is that if the number could be determined, it would be staggering. Enough perhaps to pay for SCHIP? Enough perhaps to contribute significantly to perscription drugs for the elderly? Enough perhaps to reimburse taxpayers for the illegal aliens or people without health care who gain unreimbursed treatments in the emergency rooms across the US?

No matter however. While Congress and the politically correct commend themselves on striking a blow for children's health care, while the anti-smoking lobby pat themselves on the back for yet another blow to those who indulge in the evil pleasures of tobacco, while the forces for government expansion exchange their secret handshakes over another step on the road to nationalized health care; perhaps some few will step back far enough to recognize the monster hiding in the corner. Perhaps someone with begin to notice the inefficiency in handling the simplest of business dealings on the part of health care providers today, as it continues to be the dirty little secret of the cost of medicine.