I repeat, mend the health care system

A few months ago, I called attention to our ailing health care system.

A few months ago, I called attention to our ailing health care system. In that July 21 column, I said that the first order of business for the next president of the United States is to address a system where so many are unprotected and where even many of those with health insurance are delaying treatment because they are concerned about costs.

I had some lively “debates” with several readers about that column. The feeling from some financial advisers who contacted me was that I missed the mark and that there were bigger fish to fry.

According to some advisers, the issues more important than health care include the federal budget deficit, the future of Social Security and the trade deficit.

While I always welcome and consider other views and I am thrilled that folks besides my mom read the column (she doesn’t always agree with me either), I am still convinced that health care remains the No. 1 priority for our next president. Recent findings from the American Academy of Family Physicians bear me out.

The Leawood, Kan.-based group reported last week that people responding to the financial crisis are finding creative ways to pay for groceries, keep up with their mortgage payments or rent and cover other necessities.

What they are doing at an increasingly alarming rate, the AAFP reported, is simply not filling their prescriptions.

Through August, the total number of prescriptions dispensed in this country was lower (by 1%) than in the comparable period last year. The decline isn’t because we are all miraculously healthier or because the population has shrunk.

In fact, the downturn comes after more than 10 years of consistent increases in the number of prescriptions dispensed, according to IMS Health Inc., a Norwalk, Conn.-based firm that provides market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and health care industries.

The prescription downturn is “most likely tied to a worsening economic environment,” Dr. Timothy Anderson, a pharmaceutical analyst for New York-based Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC, noted in a published report that dissected the IMS data.

The disturbing fact is that prescription drugs shouldn’t be a discretionary expense; the medicines are essential and something a patient simply shouldn’t stop taking.

According to some medical experts, however, financial constraints are forcing many people to split their pills or take their medicine every other day.

Does this make sense? What about the estimated 47 million Americans with no prescription drug or health coverage?

The AAFP correctly concluded that if enough people try to save money by forgoing drugs, the country may find itself with a medical problem even bigger than it has now. And that would raise the nation’s total health care bill while lowering its standard of living.

To me, health care still qualifies as a major problem — and one that must find itself at the top of our next president’s “to do” list.

Jim Pavia is the editor of InvestmentNews.