February 9th, 2009
Health IT opponents push Harry & Louise, but think Thelma
Ideological opponents of the Obama stimulus are focusing on its call for savings proposed from health IT, which will boost the field of comparative effectiveness.
They want Americans to stand up now and respond as they did to the Harry & Louise ads a political generation ago. In fact the call seems more like one for Thelma & Louise. (Spoiler alert.)
The first was an ad that killed the Clinton Health Plan by focusing on what it might do to an average couple. The second was a film in which the two protagonists committed suicide. (Sorry. Rosebud was his sled.)
I doubt whether Wingnut Welfare queens like Betsy McCaughey (above) or Wes Vernon will get this. Maybe it will hit them only after the Hudson Institute has to cancel its insurance.
For health care to be affordable the productivity of everyone involved must go up. This is especially true for doctors. They make the most. Their productivity gains have a big economic impact.
One way to do this is to collect data on what works, then tell doctors to do this first. Right now companies that specialize in this service, like Hayes Health Technologies, are having to go overseas to do this work.
McGaughey McCaughey and her ideological brethren paint a picture of bureaucrats denying cutting-edge care because its effectiveness is unproven. This does happen in countries that centralize payments and thus decision-making.
But the choice is not between your doctor and the treatment they prefer. It’s between you and getting treatment. It’s also a choice between the doctor going in with knowledge and flying blind.
Health IT can bring this knowledge to the point of care, often through software accessed from a form on a tablet PC. This increases the doctor’s productivity. It also increases their success rate. You don’t have to worry about whether they have read the latest literature. Its results will be there in the examining room.
Health care rationing is happening around the world, and will continue to happen, in every health care system, because demand for longer lives is infinite, or can be made to be.
American care is rationed through a digital system. You either have coverage or you don’t. While taking my son to his doctor today (turned out to be a cold) I had to listen to the receptionist inquire as to a prospective parent’s coverage, then tell them he could not see them because they had an HMO rather than a PPO.
In Canada, in Europe, in most of the world, it’s an analog process. Everyone is covered, and data is used to decide precisely what services can be delivered.
Better data means better decisions. Better data means more productive doctors, more patients getting care, and a better chance you will survive what ails you. Better data, at the point of care, is a necessity if we are to meet our enormous and growing needs for health care.
But the followers of Ayn Rand have instead yoked themselves to Ned Ludd, fighting data because it might make new economic models more popular.
That’s how Harry & Louise become Thelma & Louise, and as these ideologues plunge off the cliff and the credits roll, I’m certain there won’t be a dry eye in the house. Except, perhaps, mine. Because the embrace of technology by the market should not be based on emotions or politics, but business calculation.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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