Is health care reform on the wrong track?

Here in Washington the debate on health care reform continues, a major political platform for quite a few years now. Meanwhile, the debate on well-being waits patiently behind the curtains. Politicians, insurance companies, health care professionals, and medical devise companies try to figure out how to pay for and profit from disease, leaving the true question unasked – how can we provide health? The answer does not lie in an argument about money, still health care reform remains in a superficial stage.

A study done by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, a division of Health and Human Services, found that even with the reforms proposed in the new bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, which passed through the House on Monday, health care costs will continue to rise. With the expected expanded coverage to another 36 million Americans, the increased demand for services will probably increase prices, and providers are likely to have a different (unfavorable) attitude towards treating patients when they are receiving less money for health coverage.

Republicans, such as House GOP leader, Representative John Boehner of Ohio, insist that the new report confirms Obama’s failure to live up to his promises to lower health care costs, according to the Associated Press report, “GOP leaps on study of rising health care costs,” written by David Espo. In response, the Democrats have pointed out that the projections are for a 1.3% increase in national health care costs in exchange for 10% more of the population being insured. The $1.2 trillion dollar price tag for covering 10% of the population for 10 years should be balanced by tax increases for singles who make over half a million a year, and couples who make one million annually, huge cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, and a 2.5% tax on medical device makers, such as GE and Johnson and Johnson.

With all of this billion dollar juggling, no one is addressing the root of the problem – the health of Americans. What steps can be made to improve well-being, and prevent diseases, such as the number one killer of Americans, heart disease, which seems to be directly related to the American diet and lifestyle. What options are there in alternative medicine? What potential is there in herbal medicine, energy healing, holistic nutrition, acupuncture, and homeopathic remedies? All of these practices can be highly effective, with minimal costs. It may be time that Washington give some attention towards alternatives, such as the EU has, using a mere $2.25 million to began investigating and coordinating alternative and complementary medicine efforts in Europe with their CAMbrella program. For now, the insured and uninsured alike are left to wait and see what giant leaps or baby steps, forward or backward, the new bill will make, once a watered-down version of health care reform can be agreed upon by those in Washington. And alternative medicine, rarely covered or encouraged by the insurance companies, health care policy makers, medical device companies, or the government, will remain, well, as an alternative.