Fresh Medicine: How to Fix Reform and Build a Sustainable Health Care System Review
Last spring, after congress passed sweeping legislation to reform our nation’s health care system, the editorial board of the New York Times wrote: “Just as Social Security grew from a modest start in 1935 to become a bedrock of the nation’s retirement system, this is a start on health care reform, not the end . . . The process has finally begun.” One of the key voices in that process will be Philip Bredesen, who served as governor of Tennessee from 2003-2011. In Fresh Medicine—the first book to address this reform—Bredesen delivers a concise, intelligent analysis of what the reform is, how it is flawed and why we have to fix it.
Bredesen begins by exploring the problems with the new reform. Congress and the Obama Administration have added over 30 million more people into an obsolete broken system and done little to address the underlying problems, he argues. Bredesen then looks back and explains how the system evolved over the past century from the local doctor making house calls to today’s sprawling insurance model. Although health insurance started out as real insurance to cover hospitalization, Bredesen argues that what it pays for today is vastly different: drugs, doctor visits, and the treatment of chronic disease that extends over many years.
American health care, Bredesen asserts, needs to be reset on a new foundation, one step at a time. Without dealing with the tough problems—cost, sustainability, and quality—true reform will be elusive. Basic health care should be a universal right for all Americans, regardless of a person’s age, income, condition or where he or she lives. Based on a Social Security model in which an individual pays a small portion of his taxes into a trust, this new fund system, if managed responsibly, will guarantee a solid financial foundation for health care for generations to come. Moreover, Americans simply pay too much for health care, and so costs must be reduced by reintroducing the economic tension between buyers and sellers that makes the marketplace work. And finally, the quality of care must be improved by creating a comprehensive and accepted set of practice standards for all physicians to follow.
Governor Bredesen is uniquely qualified to contribute to this crucial debate. Before spending almost two decades in public service, during which time he overhauled an out-of-control Medicaid system that threatened to bankrupt his state, Bredesen was the founder and CEO of a managed-care company that he built from his kitchen table and ultimately took public.
In Fresh Medicine, Bredesen harnesses thirty years of experience to offer a bold, nonpartisan, and definitive take on what is wrong with health care in America, how it got there, and how we can fix it.
Bredesen begins by exploring the problems with the new reform. Congress and the Obama Administration have added over 30 million more people into an obsolete broken system and done little to address the underlying problems, he argues. Bredesen then looks back and explains how the system evolved over the past century from the local doctor making house calls to today’s sprawling insurance model. Although health insurance started out as real insurance to cover hospitalization, Bredesen argues that what it pays for today is vastly different: drugs, doctor visits, and the treatment of chronic disease that extends over many years.
American health care, Bredesen asserts, needs to be reset on a new foundation, one step at a time. Without dealing with the tough problems—cost, sustainability, and quality—true reform will be elusive. Basic health care should be a universal right for all Americans, regardless of a person’s age, income, condition or where he or she lives. Based on a Social Security model in which an individual pays a small portion of his taxes into a trust, this new fund system, if managed responsibly, will guarantee a solid financial foundation for health care for generations to come. Moreover, Americans simply pay too much for health care, and so costs must be reduced by reintroducing the economic tension between buyers and sellers that makes the marketplace work. And finally, the quality of care must be improved by creating a comprehensive and accepted set of practice standards for all physicians to follow.
Governor Bredesen is uniquely qualified to contribute to this crucial debate. Before spending almost two decades in public service, during which time he overhauled an out-of-control Medicaid system that threatened to bankrupt his state, Bredesen was the founder and CEO of a managed-care company that he built from his kitchen table and ultimately took public.
In Fresh Medicine, Bredesen harnesses thirty years of experience to offer a bold, nonpartisan, and definitive take on what is wrong with health care in America, how it got there, and how we can fix it.
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