Senator Bonham: Why is healthcare so dysfunctional?

By Oregon State Senate Republican leader Daniel Bonham,

The world has become captivated with the recent execution of the United Healthcare CEO. Make no mistake, this was an act of terrorism and should be prosecuted as such, but it has called into question the growing discontent with our nation’s healthcare systems.

Why is our healthcare so dysfunctional? There is no denying our system is broken. But, like everything else, private industry is not the enemy and the government is not the answer.

While our government continues to throw money at the problem, through Obamacare and the push to socialized healthcare systems – the reality is the American people are less free to make healthcare choices than ever before. 

Our healthcare system is more regulated and controlled than many of our first-world nations. Massive inequity for people paying for coverage creates low-quality medical care. The overregulation of new innovation stifles opportunity for lower healthcare costs and breakthrough treatments. The medical industry limits the amount of physicians trained and limits who can assist with the backlog – all contributing to a shortage.

So what can be done?

We need more investment in doctors, medical staff and hospital infrastructure. The problem with Obamacare is we increased demand for our systems, but didn’t increase supply. This investment can be done through addressing the $111 billion in identified fraud in the government healthcare system – to start.

We also need to diversify our insurance options. Ironically, we do have a sophisticated system in place, the Medicare Advantage, which utilizes public/private partnerships to maximize our healthcare system.

It’s a long, complicated road. One that we MUST embark on. As we head into this new year, it is time to have intellectually honest conversations about the state of our healthcare systems.