The goal of the Everett Clinic was to reduce healthcare by 25 percent in five years. Change can come from the busi-ness community, from the custom-ers, because the businesses are pay-ing, but change is not likely to come “The most important thing to do is make the commitment to cover everybody. In my book … the biggest difference between the US and the other rich democracies — Britain, Canada, Japan, Germany — they’re like us but those countries all said, ‘We’re a rich coun-try from the patients themselves, Reid says. “It’s too hard. Patients don’t have the know-how. They don’t have the clout. It’s a good question because people argue we need consumer-driven healthcare, that the patient is responsible and negotiates for a good price,” he says. Reid gives the example of a patient who sees a doctor for a headache and is diagnosed with an unpronounceable disease and prescribed 400 milligrams of an equally unpronounceable medication. In Reid’s scenario, the patient says, “Gee, that sounds expensive, how about 100 milligrams?” Patients don’t have the knowledge base to advocate for themselves, Reid says. “The economists have a term for this: asymmetry of informa-tion,” he explains. we’re going to supply healthcare for everybody who’s sick.’ And the US “When you go in to see your doctor, she knows everything, you know nothing except you hurt. You can’t negotiate on those terms.” “I don’t think change can be driven by the patient. They might like it. People in town might want it, after our movie, there were many places where the chamber of commerce went to the hospitals and the doctors associations and said, ‘If Seattle can do it, if this little town in Colorado can do, let’s go.’ I think the overall commu-nity can do some negotiating, but individual patients, no.” In some states, the voters have reached the ear of their legislators. Vermont is setting up a state-run single payer system. The electorates 600,000 left-wing dairy farmers like it, Reid says. And with only 2 percent of its population unin-sured, Massachusetts has the lowest uninsurance rate in America. Nationally, Reid says, the number is 16 percent. Colorado is 18 percent uninsured. Reid credits the Massachusetts voters who demanded it, and for-mer Governor Mitt Romney’s administration for lowering the cost of healthcare in Massachusetts. “Massachusetts is a classic case. The year Mitt Romney was elected, both candidates said, ‘I’m going to provide healthcare for everybody in Massachusetts.’ They really like what they call Romneycare,” enacted in 2006. “Communities can demand it,” Reid says. “They can say to their legislature, ‘If other communities can do it, why can’t we?’ And that works. In Canada, Massachusetts, Vermont, communities can be the driver. But, the places it works best are where the doctors, that’s Grand Junction, or the big payers, the employers or the insurance compa-nies go to the docs and hospitals and say, ‘Fix this,’ and that’s where change can come. “The most important thing to do is make the commitment to cover T.R. REID ON HEALTHCARE Dr. Ellis Tinsley Sr. “N 50 WBM january 2014 “When I went into practice, urses and their family, ministers and their family, hospital employees, doctors and their families, we made no charge and we took care of all of those people.” “How did we do that? It’s because our fees were not cut by the government by 40 percent. Plus we didn’t have to hire all these other people that we have to have now to deal with Medicare, Medicaid … and everything. An office has to have these extra people now to fulfill all rules, regulations,
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