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GOOD NEWS: APOLOGIES
WITH NO REGRETS
Journal of Healing – March 1, 2006

By Mary Koch

Been a lot in the news lately about health care. A lot of “good” news. So why aren’t we smiling?

Good News Story No. 1: A front-page banner headline announces “Lawyers and doctors agree.” Kind of like the mythical headline: “Peace breaks out.”

Last fall, our state witnessed doctors vs. lawyers in a vitriolic, multi-million dollar initiative campaign over medical malpractice. Voters were disgusted, and everybody lost. Then the two warring sides got a taste of Gov. Christine Gregoire’s negotiating skills – the skills that brought big tobacco to its knees in a national settlement a few years back.

The vitriol turned into what one participant called “Kumbaya” time. Neither side got what it wanted – the price of compromise. One legislator, a chiropractor, called the governor’s solution “well-intentioned pablum,” but would vote for it anyway.

All sides agree there’s a lot more work to be done in the malpractice/patient safety arena. But, for now, doctors and lawyers can find other places for their millions. And with the compromise, when a doctor screws up and feels terrible, she can at least say “I’m sorry” without having the apology used against her in court.

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GOOD NEWS Story No. 2: President Bush has been touting Health Savings Accounts like they’re the best thing since the Salk vaccine. The theory is, patients paying for health care with their own money will begin to comparison shop and costs will go down, down, down.

According to the Bush administration, we Americans (who have the most expensive but not most effective health care system in the world) don’t understand how expensive it is. The biggest factor driving health costs is the “perception that health care is free,” Allan Hubbard, director of the President’s National Economic Council, said last week.

Pardon me while I choke. It’s doggone difficult to find any American these days who is not confronting either increased insurance premiums, increased co-pays, or no insurance at all. With medical costs cited as the No. 1 reason for personal bankruptcy, Americans are woefully aware that our chances of finding a free lunch are a lot better than finding free health care.

Even a one-time member of the Bush administration, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, says the solution has to go a lot deeper and broader than the HSA remedy. Health savings accounts “are good for certain people,” he said after speaking for an AARP event last week, but “it’s not the panacea for everybody.”

Everybody weighs in with medical analogies. Dr. Karen Davis, president of the non-profit Commonwealth Fund, says health savings accounts are “the wrong prescription.”

In her eyes, the administration’s blame-the-victim approach is a bitter pill: “The patient is not at fault for high health care costs, and the solution isn’t making the patient pay more of their own bills out of pocket.”

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GOOD NEWS Story No. 3: Avastin, a drug widely used for colon cancer, has been found effective for breast and lung cancer. Trouble is, the maker, Genentech, will charge $100,000 for a year’s treatment – about double the cost for colon cancer. Given the patient pool of lung and breast cancers, sales could grow nearly sevenfold to $7 billion by 2009, the New York Times reported.

Traditionally, drug makers defend high prices based on the cost of developing new medicines. Genentech simply says it charges what patients will pay. A hundred thou or you die. Despite the sales boon, there’s no reason to lower prices because “the health economics hold up,” said a Genentech official.

At least he’s honest. And I suppose that’s good news.

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