Robert Hargrove

Design Legislation based on “First Principles”

Our work at Masterful Coaching is to coach leaders who seek to make a difference in their world. I would love to have the opportunity to coach President Obama or the leaders of Congress in charge of passing a healthcare bill. The first thing I would talk about is an Impossible Future of affordable healthcare for all. Then I would talk about basing the health care system legislation on “First Principles.” For example, people and families getting the healthcare they need, not doctors and insurance firms getting rich.

Let me share with you a story from my personal experience that illustrates the above. We love our son’s physician, Dr. George Gallos, the bespectacled Hungarian whose eyes and gentle bedside manner harkens back to a Normal Rockwell painting of a country doctor attending to Tommy with his baseball glove in hand.

After visiting the doctor with our son for a slight arm strain, we were surprised to get a $245 bill. It turns out that we recently changed our heath insurance company and, while we were told that our new insurer, Fallon Medical, covered Dr. Gallos, he wasn’t covered in our Fallon Select Plan.

I called Dr. Gallos’ office to say that we were not too happy about this and they graciously made a $100 adjustment. However, I was struck by just how expensive a doctor’s visit has become in just a short time. A few years ago, I paid a York Maine doctor (where I have a summer home) only $30 for visit and a poison ivy shot.

It also became clear just how wrong-headed the US healthcare system is. It seems that the purpose has become to make health insurance companies and doctors rich. In China, Canada, England, Sweden, and probably 50 other countries, our son’s doctor’s visit would not have cost over the $30 dollars I paid years ago. The reason is that the healthcare systems in these countries are designed for the right reason, providing healthcare to the nation’s people. (See my block on China healthcare below.)

My family pays over $1000 a month for health insurance, an astronomical fee, and the services are very restricted. The insurance company told us when we called up to inquire that we could indeed see Dr. Gallos for the princely sum of an additional $200 more per month. No wonder we have 45 million people in this country that don’t have access to affordable healthcare.

This incident also caused me to reconsider my sentimental attachment for Dr. Gallos. His office is always packed with patients and he must be a very rich man despite paying for office rent and a receptionist. Our son’s visit lasted only ten minutes and cost $245. If you multiply $245 times 6 patients an hour, that comes out to almost $1500 an hour. I am all for free enterprise but…

I heard over the weekend that President Obama was inviting both Republicans and Democrats to a special White House conference in an attempt to get a healthcare bill passed that deals with the millions of individuals and families who don’t have it.

95% of the Republicans and Democrats think this healthcare gap is appalling. Everyone seems to agree on the What, but not the How. I suggest the first thing to discuss at this joint conference is something that’s called “First Principles,” or the purpose. Clearly, the purpose of the US healthcare system should not be to make doctors and health insurance companies rich, it should be to provide affordable healthcare to everyone in the country and any legislation should be derived out of that.