The American Public on Health Care-The Missing Perspective - (Page 41)

Figure Z. Quality and Accessibility of Health Care 100 80 % saying excellent or good 77% 65% 80% 60% 35% 25% Quality of own healthcare 72% 57% 77% 56% Availability of quality healthcare Access to care for the uninsured 60 40 25% 17% 20 0 National San Francisco Detroit Miami A physician from California finds the same disparity in his part of the country: “I think the problem we see is that some people have great access to great care… [while] many other people have either no access to care or are being cared for in a system that does not deliver the quality they expect.” How has our society become a land of haves and have nots when it comes to health care? The current system offers few incentives for any party—patient, insurer, or provider—to be valueconscious when making health care decisions.22 Patients who have health insurance plans may feel entitled to care—regardless of cost— if they believe they are already paying for it through their insurance premiums. Providers, who are paid for their services and are often stakeholders in the very facilities their patients visit, have little financial incentive to limit a patient’s treatments or visits.23 Finally, administrative costs in the U.S. are six times of that seen in comparable nations.24 22 McKinsey p. 8, 23 McKinsey, p. 14, 24 McKinsey, p. 16 41

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