Wow! I’m floored, and extremely energized, by the response to my message about the shadowy activities of healthcare executive, Deborah Farrell, who is fronting for the healthcare industry in trying to block our price transparency ballot initiative. The post resulted in 1,000 new signups to follow BrokenHealthcare.org’s efforts to transform the American healthcare system, and I received many personal emails from many people I’ve never met. Most important, we had three different offers to sponsor or host a public debate if Ms. Farrell would show up. One person asked if I thought Ms. Farrell would find out the price of spinal implant surgery at the Heart of the Rockies Medical Center before choosing to proceed with the elective surgery. That one gave me a good laugh.
The huge response adds up to a heck of a vote of confidence. For that, I’m grateful. I’ve heard from Americans across the country. I even heard from someone in the Netherlands. His wife is an American, so they’re watching this closely too. Another supporter has offered to organize an event in New York City where I know we’ll find lots of support. As I’ve said many times, this isn’t just about Colorado, it’s about the entire American healthcare system. Colorado is just the starting point.
As things heat up, people are asking better and better questions about the fight for healthcare price transparency. Everyone knows healthcare is an awful marketplace—one where we have little insight into prices and few choices based on price, quality, and service information. While there’s near unanimous frustration and disappointment in our healthcare system, supporters (like you) are coming to understand that we’re not just trying to empower consumers and put an end to abuse, we’re also working to turn the American healthcare system into a functional, competitive, fair, and ever-improving system.
With healthcare spending fast approaching 20% of GDP, I can’t think of anything more important. It doesn’t matter whether you think national security, climate change, or anything else is important. Just ask yourself how we pay for those things. How do we pay for the most powerful military on the planet? How can we afford to spend the money that might be needed to combat the effects of climate change? When you consider the big picture, you’ll quickly realize that the strength of the U.S. economy is what enables the United States to be the nation it is.
Healthcare is the fastest growing expense of businesses. It’s the fastest growing expense of families. And it’s the fastest growing expense of government. Nothing threatens our economy more than growing government and personal debt attributable to healthcare.
By most estimates, we’re over-spending on healthcare by one trillion dollars a year. The positive economic impact of dealing with that will be bigger than any tax cut, any stimulus plan, any interest rate cut, or any other driver of economic growth we can imagine. It won’t happen overnight, but given the size of the U.S. healthcare system and the volume of transactions that happen every day, it will happen faster than people think.
So, thank you to everyone who’s reached out to support us. Please keep helping us share the message and fix the system.
