The Shifting Tide of American Healthcare - Time Out #326

Change in life is the only constant thing.

That is certainly the case with the recent past, present, and future of healthcare in Our Country, in my humble opinion.

As I was growing up in the late 1950's in Our Town, the iconic Dr. Orville Rippy occasionally visited our home at 1523 West 4th Avenue (at South Walnut Street). When he stopped by to see us, it usually wasn't for a social call, but a professional medical visit to see me, a Westwood Elementary School youth. He would examine me (mostly for tonsillitis), then give me a penicillin shot, and a prescription. My father would pay him $5 cash, and thank him taking his time to see a sick, young boy, Col. C.H. Breedlove's youngest son, on a local house call.

Yes, dear readers in Our Town and far beyond, times have definitely changed, regarding delivery of healthcare, in almost 7 decades since then.

Soon after William Jefferson Clinton was elected our 42nd President in November, 1992, he put his spouse, Hilliary Rodham Clinton, in charge of socializing (involving more governmental control) of U.S. healthcare. Ms. Clinton was unsuccessful in her attempt (followed years later by President Barack Obama's successful legislation), but her efforts did open the door for America's Wall Street (i.e., business interests) to seize more control of our healthcare system.

The short answer is healthcare has become a huge, successful business in Our Country. It absolutely has arrived, folks!

When Dr. Rippy made his early day rounds in Our Town back in the day, there was very little 3rd party payment (aka medical insurance). That whole picture began to change in the mid-1960's, courtesy President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs, most notably Medicare. As an aside, my bride, Lady Deborah and I have visited President Harry S. and Bess Truman's home front room in Independence, MO, where President Johnson presented the Trumans the first 2 Medicare cards, July 30, 1965. For the next 30 years, more and more medical insurance companies opened for business in Our Country, but nothing like the warp-speed of activity once the business opportunity spotlight shined brightly on Ms. Clinton's efforts.

For the most part, historically, physicians themselves have been non-business/political people. We (me, too!) want to take care of our patients to the best of our professional abilities, and leave the business aspect of medicine to someone else. Well, that someone else, has become the professional business attire worn by America's big business concerns. Business leads medicine today wherever business wants medicine to go.

On a personal note, one of the major reasons I went into my particular medical specialty was I wanted to be self-employed. Almost 44 years of private practice later, I remain self-employed. However, my medical practice model is almost non-existent today, and as I keep it up, history may place me in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., as an extinct being! Almost every healthcare provider over Our Country is employed by someone else, individual practitioners having never been "on their own", or those that decided to sell their private medical practices to big business organizations, and, thus, become their employees. Once again, those practice styles have never appealed to me.

Here is another inevitable future healthcare reality in my crystal ball. I predict without any doubt, eventually (many years?), Our Country will have a national healthcare policy, and the program will be administered by Big Brother (U.S. Government). Why, you ask? Simply stated, because we can't continue to afford the incredible costs associated with current healthcare. I want to be absolutely clear; I didn't say I want/approve of government-run healthcare, but because of the extreme costs (big business inspired ?), we cannot continue to pay the ever-increasing tabs $$$. I also think IF people can afford to pay themselves for medical services outside the established governmental plans, fee for medical services will always be available, as it is in similar situations in most countries across planet earth.

Gentle reminder, folks. The only constant in life is change.