Commentary: Erik Olsen on the window America has to fix its health care plan

Sunday, Aug. 13, 2006 | 7:34 a.m.

Editor's note: In August the Where I Stand column is turned over to guest writers. Today's column is by Erik Olsen, national president of the AARP. Olsen, a retired dentist, lives in the Lake Tahoe community of Glenbrook.

Because of today's spiraling health care costs, more than half of Nevada's 297,000 AARP members who are not eligible for Medicare, along with hundreds of thousands of other Nevada residents, are becoming increasingly afraid of losing their health coverage - if they have any.

Americans today are now paying almost twice as much as any other developed country for health care. Spiraling health care costs are a hidden tax, not only on individuals, but on businesses, too. Corporations and small businesses alike are seeing the cost of offering health coverage move beyond what they feel they can afford and still compete in the marketplace.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office, among others, have said that slowing the growth of health care costs is critical to meeting America's future fiscal challenges. I agree, and I believe this should be our nation's highest priority.

The problem is uncontrolled costs and myriad inefficiencies throughout our entire health care system. Medicare and Medicaid are not the problem. Chopping these programs' benefits merely shifts the burden of escalating health care costs from one group to another - in this case, from government to individuals. It does nothing to alleviate the problem.

Americans should have a reformed, patient-focused health care system that provides universal coverage, comprehensive benefits and high quality services - while managing and containing costs. I believe it can be done. America is the best equipped nation in the world in virtually every way to reinvent our systems and our programs.

The key challenges we will face have been identified, but first some important "building blocks" must be built and put in place as we prepare to tackle the vital comprehensive reforms we need.

We must, for example, emphasize prevention to a far greater degree. Chronic diseases must be managed better. Today's system remains overly devoted to addressing acute care. And system-wide use of information technology will enable providers to conduct clinical and administrative activities in a far more accurate and efficient manner.

While space doesn't permit a detailed discussion here of all of these "building blocks," I'd like to address one of the major ones: making prescription drugs affordable. Seventy-two percent of AARP Nevada's members listed access to affordable prescription drugs as a top concern in AARP's latest state survey.

The enactment of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which created the Part D prescription drug benefit for Medicare beneficiaries, was a significant step toward resolving this problem for older Americans, and for those with disabilities. But much more needs to be done.

A recent AARP Rx Watchdog Report showed that brand-name drug prices continue to soar - nearly 4 percent during the first quarter of 2006. A typical older American (who takes four brand-name prescription drugs per day) is likely to have experienced an average annual increase in their drug therapy costs of $238.28 for the 12 months ending with the first quarter of 2006, when the full price increases were passed along to the consumer.

At the national level, and at the state level through efforts like the Prescription for Nevada campaign, AARP is working to lower the cost of prescription drugs in a wide variety of areas that will lead to increased access and affordability. They include:

Today's trend of spiraling health care costs cannot be sustained for much longer. If we were to stay on our present course, our federal budget would literally begin to explode when the 76 million Baby Boomers begin turning 65 in 2011.

We have a "window of opportunity" of roughly five to seven years to develop fair, effective and bipartisan solutions and to begin enacting needed changes. I believe we have no choice.