Healthcare’s Day of Reckoning

It’s a healthcare election and there’s a lot on the line:

1.    Medicare and Social Security survival 

2.    Medicaid expansion or contraction

3.    Prescription drug price setting

4.    Pre-existing condition protections

5.    Public health modernization…or not

Add to the mix COVID: over 8.5 million confirmed infections and estimated 2020 deaths rising to 350,000. Today, partisan politics and science deniers are influencing public opinion around how to stem the spread of coronavirus. Beyond debating COVID’s 3Ws – Wear your mask, Wash your hands, Watch your distance – the country’s experiencing vaccine hesitancy: reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated against a contagious illness despite availability of a tested and proven vaccine. On average only 50% of Americans say they would get an approved COVID vaccine…when a vaccine is the only way to attain population ‘herd’ immunity. There’s also COVID’s economic impact of record high unemployment causing both financial strain and significant drops in employer-based health insurance coverage. Estimates have upward of 14 million people being added to the pre-pandemic total of 30+ million uninsured Americans.

It’s no surprise Americans cite ‘healthcare costs’ when asked about the most important financial problem facing their family. We live in a nation where 190 million people have at least one chronic condition. In 2020 annual healthcare costs for a family of four with PPO coverage are over $28,000. With healthcare costs outpacing wages and out-of- pocket expenses climbing, consumers face extraordinary financial burdens. As a result they are delaying care, skipping prescriptions, and ignoring preventative care…all amplified by COVID. Consumers are anxious and scared. They are uncertain about the future of their healthcare.

Government healthcare programs for seniors, children, veterans, low-income populations, and military personnel comprise a significant portion of America’s $4 trillion healthcare spend. These government programs touch every consumer and every segment of healthcare’s business sector. And in Washington, divisive rhetoric shapes healthcare’s policy agenda. The next administration will have to address complicated issues of pandemic mitigation, health disparities, access to care, and cost of coverage as the nation moves through a prolonged COVID recovery period.

The 2020 election is a healthcare election…so vote like your health depends on it.