America’s Health Care Woes: A Cultural Crisis ©
The Backdrop
Nearly every day AspireUSA’s representatives speak with employers of all sizes about their growing health care concerns. When discussing with those in authority the steps they have taken or are considering to mitigate their health care challenges, the majority respond by citing how they’re addressing the primary—and painful—symptom of our growing health care problems (i.e., rising health care costs) ; unfortunately, there is little-to-no mention of any activity that they have initiated to mitigate a principal cause (cultural issues). This direction will never provide America with desperately needed positive health care outcomes, and we will continue in our downward descent without an immediate and profound change in the manner with which we are addressing our health care ills.
Obviously, the vast majority of U.S. businesses and citizens are struggling with rising health care costs. Add to this the fact that health care costs are projected to continue rising over the coming years—at a rate 2-3 times that of general inflation—and it is unquestionable that we face monumental challenges; however, our true challenges are not what most Americans believe them to be, and most of us are unaware that there is a strategic direction we can—and must—embrace.
The status quo, wherein employers make reactive, symptom-based decisions to mitigate rising health care costs (e.g., reducing benefits protection that is so highly valued by employees, shifting more premium responsibility to employees, implementing a Consumer Driven Health Plan, etc.) will not produce optimal results over the long-term. Is there a much better way to address America’s health care problems? Our answer is an emphatic, “ Yes! ”
It is incumbent upon all of us to begin working together today to build a better future, both for the generations behind us and ourselves. Again, rising health care costs are just a primary symptom of our health care woes. Rising costs should serve only as an indicator or metric signaling the existence that we have underlying problems. Instead, we generally focus most of our collective efforts in a reactive manner in order to develop a direction that will mitigate their immediate impact on us. While most of us would agree that we want the rising health care cost resolved indefinitely, we generally craft a reactionary direction that allows us temporal relief at best. In other words, we want this problem to just go away permanently, but we don’t want to do what we must to minimize the rising health care cost problem: Making every attempt to improve the daily lifestyle choices of our employees, which is a primary cause of this problem.
For decades rising health care costs has been our “red sky in the morning” warning, however, we have largely chosen to either ignore it or we have responded inefficiently and/or passively, which has precluded us from establishing positive results. Today, even though an unprecedented urgency for change finally exists, most employers are still only taking steps to address their health care costs. Why do I think this is the case? Because corporate America has been hoodwinked into believing that it can only deal with the (rising cost) pain it feels and therefore it has been compelled to choose from an assortment of symptom-centric band-aids, leaving us without a strategic plan to overcome cultural causes.
Continuing to follow the beaten down “path of least resistance” finds us quickly approaching a health care train wreck. Is this what we want for ourselves? What about our children; our grandchildren; our other family members and friends; and, our fellow citizens? We can, should and must do better. If not already the case, each of us must first choose to live a disciplined life. We must begin caring about our health and take responsibility for our own lifestyle decisions. We must not look to anyone else to bail us out of messes we create. We must accept the consequences of our daily decisions and overall approach to life. We must stop looking at our employers, the states within which we reside and/or the U.S. government with the perspective that they owe us an escape ticket to spare us from the negative outcomes we deserve.
Scope of Urgency / Framing Our Solution-Driven Direction
Frankly, we face a monumental challenge. Even if today we all hastened to improve our daily lifestyles and our personal outlook on life, to a point where we immediately adhered to a healthier lifestyle and significantly improved our overall health, some extended measure of time would have to elapse before we would begin realizing meaningful results (i.e., lower health care cost inflation).Regardless, we must begin to exert effort to overcome our cultural “daggers in the side” or we will all come to realize—very soon—that we are indeed on a slippery slope.
Despite what you may have read or heard via effective “smoke and mirror” sales tactics, there is no “Universal Fix” or “Silver Bullet” remedy that we can call upon to erase our health care ills. Nonetheless, most employers can begin to provide much needed leadership and to affect positive change within their organization by laying a foundational philosophic direction that addresses existing cultural issues. At some point thereafter, each employer would be empowered with the knowledge they need to tailor a strategic direction that allows them to best satisfy their cultural, employee benefit and bottom line financial objectives.
In order to protect and further its best health care interests, corporate America must begin to reduce its reliance upon the health insurance industry. There isn’t a health insurer, an insurance concept (e.g., Consumer Driven Health Plans—HSAs, HRAs, etc.) and/or a political conduit that is capable of effectively addressing our cultural problems. In the case of health care, our primary cultural challenges include a lack of personal health ownership/individual responsibility, lethargy, and a perspective that health insurance—moreover overall welfare protection—is a right or entitlement.
Again, even if we all begin to live responsibly, we are behind the proverbial “Eight Ball”; however, it is in our individual and collective best interests to do everything possible to mitigate cultural cost drivers. These cultural causes have evolved over the past few decades; thus, we will not rid ourselves of them in short order. Regardless, we each owe it to society and to ourselves to invoke an acceptance of individual responsibility in reaching and maintaining a favorable health status. This is absolutely necessary if we want the best possible health care future in America. Desperately needed health care solutions will only come via a broad-based leadership effort by corporate America.
Because reactionary decisions relating to rising health care costs only serve to create (at best) a temporary band-aid fix or inflationary respite, AspireUSA’s perspective is that corporate America must aggressively pursue the following (oversimplified) direction in order to lead a successful effort to overcome the adverse impact of our cultural issues in health care:
- Acknowledge that significant cultural bleeds are pervasive within its covered population, such as instant gratification and / or entitlement mindsets, that have long been—and continue to be—material cost drivers causing health care to become unaffordable for more and more Americans. It is impossible to fix problems if you don’t believe they exist.
- Commit to improving your organization’s culture by way of building a collaborative spirit with employees and their loved ones, not by way of an “iron fist”. In this way, a positive team building and partnering spirit will be established that results in many positives—far beyond just health care—for your organization and its employees, and it will provide an environment for the very best outcomes.
- Implement a comprehensive health risk management initiative, not just a wellness program that attempts to position individuals to improve their own health. Wellness programs have limited effectiveness because they primarily cater to individuals who are self-driven and who are likely already “well”; further, they do not provide support mechanisms necessary to ensure a high level of employee participation, empowerment, engagement, personal responsibility and accountability. A properly engineered health risk management initiative will address and improve your organization’s culture.
Conclusion
The positive effects of implementing a health risk management/wellness initiative are broadly spread. They reach far beyond minimizing employers’ health care spend by improving individual quality of life, deepening employer/employee relationships, improving employee morale, reducing absenteeism, improving presenteeism, initiating personal health responsibility and employing ongoing metrics that allow for performance measurement, personal accountability and positive, long-term outcomes.
A properly conducted health risk management initiative will result in a positive Return on Investment (ROI), while any kind of program that is solely employee-directed (most health risk appraisal or wellness programs being sold in the market place today…) will fall well short of providing optimal results over the long term. Employers have the ability to best influence—in a profound sense—employees and their loved ones. Time is running out; thus, we must not delay. If we fail to aggressively move now on a large-scale basis, then most Americans will endure health care affordability and qualitative consequences.
Corporate America will either voluntarily and aggressively address existing cultural problems, which will best enable us to reach our health care potential, or we will face a dire set of circumstances due to increased public sector oversight and/or the establishment of expanded government influence (i.e., socialized medicine in some form). To be sure, we need to address other less severe health care problems, and we must advance numerous efficiency improvements within our current private health care system. Americans depend on employers for health care leadership and resources, however, we must acknowledge an irrefutable truth: The only meaningful substance of health care hope we have lies within each of us individually, not with our employers, the states within which we live and/or the U.S. Government.
If you direct or influence your employee benefit direction, I strongly encourage you to fully evaluate the merit of investing the time, energy and effort necessary to negate the adverse affects of American culture within your organization. Doing such will initially pay significant dividends to your valued employees and their loved ones; thereafter, your organization will reap exponentially greater rewards as the collaborative spirit of positive change results in a positive and sustainable ROI (tangible and intangible) going forward.
I truly hope and pray that God blesses every employer and individual with a resilient urgency and passion to directly combat our cultural issues. This will result in the creation of invaluable leadership in this critical area and bless you and others within your sphere of influence.