National Healthcare lesson: keep it simple

Full disclosure right up front: I’m in favor of a national healthcare solution. I don’t know exactly what that should look like, but I do believe that our current approach to healthcare is something less than a cohesive system, or a long-term sustainable approach. I think it’s appalling that, while we spend a higher percentage of our gross domestic product on healthcare than any other country, we still lag behind 36 other countries in the world, according to the World Health Organization. While many of us know first hand the cost of providing health care benefits to employees, those of us working in senior care also know how challenging and frequently dysfunctional our “system” for long term care is.

But here’s my frustration: despite knowing that our current healthcare system needs a major change, I have no idea if the President’s plan will be the fix we need. The pundits are firmly divided along ideological lines; the press worries about costs involved, and paints a less-than-rosy picture of the current proposed plan.

Howard Gleckman, past senior correspondent at Business Week and currently a senior researcher at the Urban Institute recently authored a book titled “Caring for our Parents”. In his book, Gleckman shares stories of everyday Americans, struggling with caregiving issues. He points that, in the current demographics, if you are not today a caregiver, you or someone close to you will be very soon. According to Gleckman’s estimates, over 70 percent of our parents will need some kind of long term care assistance during their lifetimes.

The stress of caregiving and the fractured, unsupported nature of long term care in this country, make the experience much more challenging that it needs to be. As many of us are very aware, governmental programs often pay for the most expensive alternative for care, rather than the least expensive, most preferred options.

Gleckman’s book is an excellent look at topics related to long-term care needs and public policy, as well as personal experience.

Here’s my own business take-home lesson from the current debate about healthcare problems and plans: Solutions to problems, globally or personally, need to be simple and clear. We need to help families understand our small piece of the big health or long-term care picture with clear, simple language. We need to advocate for a simple system that meets the needs of the people we serve, in our own small segment of the big picture.

Perhaps as we continue to work toward change, a small, simple step at a time, we’ll achieve something great on a larger scale, too.