Healthcare costs, not healthcare quality, can be cut. Here’s how.

There is no free lunch in healthcare; costs that are not paid for by uninsured or underinsured users increase the costs for other payers. We are all paying for the care one way or another.

The only way to eliminate the cost for the uninsured and underinsured is to not provide care. We haven’t come to that yet. “He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25:45)

The U.S. healthcare system is ranked 37th for overall health system performance by the World Health Organization and number one for per capita cost. France is ranked number 1 for overall health system performance and 4th for per capita cost while providing coverage for all its citizens. If the U.S. spent the same per capita cost as France, for all U.S. citizens, it would save $1 trillion per year. The focus in Washington should be on reducing the exorbitant costs of our healthcare system, not denying care to its citizens.

U.S. healthcare costs have grown from 5.2 percent of Gross National Product (GNP) in 1960 to 17.1 percent in 2016 and are projected to reach 20 percent by 2020. Healthcare costs have grown faster than the total GNP, taking financial resources from other business sectors of the economy. Reducing healthcare costs for large and small businesses will relieve a significantly expanding expense improving a businesses ability to grow and create jobs.

We don’t have to sacrifice quality to reduce healthcare costs, actually the reverse is true. There needs to be a retooling of the medical industrial complex with a focus on paying for quality, access to care and cost reduction. Unless there is a grassroots push nothing will be done.

This story was originally published July 29, 2017 at 1:59 PM with the headline "Healthcare costs, not healthcare quality, can be cut. Here’s how.."