NormCare instead of real healthcare reform

Instead of supporting any meaningful healthcare reform, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) has introduced the National Health Literacy Act (S. 2424). This bill will attempt to improve Americans knowledge as patients and ability to navigate our byzantine health system. The most byzantine part is undoubtedly Medicare Part D which Norm supported. Part D has been confusing and enraging seniors since its inception. This new bill is actually a good bill -- Sens. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) are co-sponsors -- but absolutely nowhere near enough.

This bill is the equivalent of pulling out a wind gauge to measure a hurricane's wind speeds then suggesting better brands of rain gear and improved techniques for dodging large flying objects like cars and trees. The solution, metaphorically, is to leave the island and go somewhere safe. Like some kind of universal healthcare system mainland far away from where the hurricane rages.

The real deal with this bill is that it will provide Norm cover so that he can oppose any attempts at real healthcare reform that might come up between now and election day 2008. Efforts like universal healthcare or medicare negotiating drug prices. Things like that.

By the way, his other bit of cover is his support of the SCHIP bill. Norm is working hard at attempting to look moderate and supporting SCHIP (which was doomed to fail via Bush's veto) is a brilliant tactical vote. Conservatives may forgive him (and then again they may not) for supporting this because he is in such a difficult reelection race. The Republican leadership know he's embattled and more than likely allowed him vote for it as they knew that Bush's veto would hold.

So let's take a look at some of the aspects of the bill, in particular The Findings:

1. Low health literacy is a problem for half of all American adults, or 100,000,000 individuals.
2. Health literacy problems impact health care cost, quality of care, and health outcomes.
3. Ensuring that individuals have health literacy skills is critical to their ability to function effectively as patients and health care consumers.
4. Health literacy skills are needed to communicate with health care providers, to understand self-care instructions, to understand and complete medical forms, to comply with treatment regimens, and to complete a host of other important health care tasks.
5. Low health literacy costs billions of dollars each year in avoidable health care expenses, the majority of which is borne by the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
6. The elderly and chronically ill are among those most at-risk of low health literacy. Those with the greatest health care needs are the heaviest users of health care and may be least able to respond to their health situation.
7. The Institute of Medicine's landmark report published in 2004, `Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion', identifies health literacy as `critical to successful health care'.
8. Former Surgeon General Carmona concluded that `health literacy can save lives, save money, and improve the health and well-being of millions of Americans'.

(Library of Congress THOMAS

The bill will establish a center (read think tank) to study our nation's health literacy problem, publish findings and make recommendations about possible solutions to Congress.

Here's Norm's statement on his bill:

“In our ever changing and extremely complex health care system, it is critical that all Americans have the skills to make informed decisions about their treatment options. Despite this need, health literacy has been an afterthought in the larger healthcare debate,” said Coleman. “Consumers must have the ability to make knowledgeable choices about their healthcare options, as low health literacy impacts everything from access to quality affordable care to misinterpretation of doctor’s orders – all of which negatively affect patients and drive up overall costs. Our bill will help alleviate this costly problem by expanding the consumer’s ability to obtain and understand health care information and services.”
[emphasis mine]
(Norm's 12/6/07 press release about the bill)

This is all well and good, but is a small drop in the bucket. The most difficult to understand part of our healthcare crisis is how to navigate the health insurance company bureacracies. Jaunts into these peculiar tortorous depths of hell can leave even the mildest people cursing out loud. It's well and good to help Americans become better health consumers, but the real problem is access.

47 million Americans do not have access to healthcare because they do not have health insurance. Many, many millions more have inadequate health insurance. The single largest factor that drives up healthcare costs is when these people eventually go to the emergency room for conditions that were eminently treatable earlier, the costs are dramatically higher. Dealing with the uninsured is much more important. If all Americans had access to the healthcare they needed, then a bill like this might do a lot of good.

Otherwise, I suppose that tips on the best rain gear for hurricanes and how to avoid large flying objects during hurricanes is better than nothing.