The recent activity in Congress to enact healthcare reform is probably dead. Senate majority leader Harry Reid said recently, “We’re not on healthcare right now.” Even Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said, “It’s a time out.” Basically President Obama’s attempt to rework the U.S. healthcare system is dead in the water. 

 

In order to understand the tremendously negative impact of the potential radical reworking of our medical system, a few statistics are noteworthy. According to the Wall Street Journal, the healthcare industry consists of 340,650 separate establishments employing 5,508,926 people. We have 512,000 physicians and surgeons, 2.2 million registered nurses and innumerable businesses directly or indirectly related to the delivery of health. As one of the most populous states in the country, Florida’s share of this healthcare pie is considerable. 

 

It is no accident that growth in the medical fields has been in a deep freeze because of the uncertainty of the potential changes mandated by the bills in Congress. Just like the stock market where uncertainty is a guaranteed bear market, the recent Congressional proposals have put a major damper on medically related growth. Many physicians have put off any consideration of growth and expansion while awaiting the dread of Mr. Obama’s surgical rearranging of the anatomy of our healthcare delivery. Any expansion requires investment along with the associated risks of borrowing money. With the tightening up of loan qualifications and future uncertainty, most physicians simply don’t want to take any chances. To think that the U.S. public would actually buy into a Canadian style system with the limited access to specialists and 6 month waits for joint replacements and coronary bypasses was the ultimate in political folly.

 

It is no accident that we have the best healthcare system in the world. With our access to the latest in advanced medical and surgical therapies, we are the envy of the world. Otherwise why do people travel from every foreign country to be treated here and pay cash for their care? However, it doesn’t happen on the cheap and some reform is needed to curb future increases. Surprisingly, many physicians I talk to are actually in favor of meaningful reform. They would like to see an end to preexisting condition clauses and affordable basic health insurance plans that can be sold across state lines to increase competition and lower rates between insurers. Malpractice reform, which has been introduced in many states, has proven to lower the cost of providing care. Unfortunately, there was no mention of tort reform in the recent bills before Congress except for a pilot study. 

 

Best practice guidelines could be introduced along with error reductions using electronic medical records. Ironically, many federal laws such as the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (also know as HIPAA) which provides for civil and criminal prosecution if the wrong information is mistakenly leaked, limits the type and scope of any shared information. Even emailing information is not allowed unless it goes thru 5 layers of filtering which most physicians can’t afford. Thus the advantages of easily sharing information through electronic means are stymied by current federal rules negating some of the advantages of records in digital form. Public Health Service or county clinics could be expanded to provide basic free care which could unload the emergency rooms nation wide. Large employers could be required to provide basic insurance coverage to all their employees. An emphasis on preventive health and healthy living could reward and help reduce costs for those who choose to avoid obesity and smoking. 

 

As a real estate professional I have noted a sigh of relief by many of my physician and medically related businesses. Talk of planning for growth for the future is starting up again as the reality of radical federal changes in U.S. healthcare is waning. For those physicians who have been sitting on the sidelines over the past 12 months, I say MOVE ON. As in an earlier article I said that there has never been a better time to purchase or lease new property as well as purchasing new equipment to outfit a new office. Eventually the rest of the economy will rebound along with the pent up demand for healthcare services. Now with the onus of the unknown off of our necks it is time to take a deep breath and sit down and think about the future. With the healthcare quagmire behind us, the medical industry has moved out of intensive care to a state of better health.