The Missing Piece in America’s Health Care Debate

Posted on March 23, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Rick Kahler CFP™

http://www.KahlerFinancial.com

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The recent horrifying murder of UnitedHealthcare Group CEO Brian Thompson has called attention to the anger many Americans feel about our health care system. This tragedy has thrust the very real issue of health care costs back into the headlines.

One article on the topic, from Ken Alltucker for USA Today, offered seven reasons why Americans pay so much for health care with such poor results. When I saw the headline, I thought, “Finally, someone’s going to bring up the elephant in the room: taxes.”

The seven reasons included bloated administrative costs, lack of price transparency, overpaid specialists, higher prescription drug prices, and more. But I didn’t see a word about how, compared to other developed nations with “cheaper” health care, Americans pay far lower taxes. That omission feels like leaving a critical piece of the puzzle off the table.

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In reality, countries with universal health care are not pulling off some magic trick of efficiency. They are simply collecting the money differently—through significantly higher taxes. Americans, on the other hand, pay for health care more directly, through out-of-pocket costs and insurance premiums.

In a column last year, I did the math. Americans spend about 17.8% of GDP on health care, plus 27.7% of GDP in taxes. That’s a total of 45.5%. Now compare that to twelve European countries with universal health care. They spend a median of 11.5% of GDP on health care and collect 41.9% of GDP in taxes. Total? 53.4%. In other words, Americans are spending 7.9% less overall on healthcare and taxes combined.

The saving isn’t what it appears, though. A fair comparison of healthcare costs and taxes needs to account for the fact that universal healthcare systems cover 100% of their populations, while the U.S. system currently leaves about 8% uninsured. If you factor in the cost of covering our uninsured residents, the U.S. likely spends a comparable percentage of income on healthcare as European countries with universal systems.

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Our system is far from perfect. As the USA Today article points out, administrative costs are bloated. Harvard’s David Cutler estimates up to 25% of our health spending goes toward paperwork, phone calls, and processing. Price transparency is practically nonexistent. The cost of a diagnostic test might vary from $300 to $3,000 depending on where you go. We pay much more for prescription drugs and many procedures than those same treatments cost in other developed nations. Another issue is the fee-for-service model that rewards doctors for ordering more tests and procedures, whether or not patients get better.

We can do better. Innovations like value-based care, where providers are paid for outcomes rather than procedures, could help shift the system toward real results. Greater price transparency would empower patients to make informed choices and force providers to compete. And addressing administrative inefficiencies could save billions.

Yet fixing the system requires being honest about trade-offs. If we want universal health care at European price rates, we need to accept European tax rates. That’s the part of the conversation that often gets left out. It’s easy to be angry at hospitals, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—and yes, they all have plenty to answer for. But we also need to face the reality that we’ve chosen a system that prioritizes lower taxes over centralized health care.

Anger may have put the flaws in our health care system in the spotlight. Finding genuine solutions will require moving beyond expressions of anger and frustration. It will demand thoughtful discussions about what kind of health care system, as individuals and as a nation, that we want and how we are willing to fund it.

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DENTAL CARE: Unattainable for Many Patients

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

“Crisis”

By Staff Reporters

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A lack of insurance and high out-of-pocket costs make dental care unattainable for 69 million people in the US. (USA Today)

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Newt Gingrich has his Way with the ADA

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Dentists should be furious with Gingrich for commandeering the ADA

By D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

On This Week roundtable discussion this morning [Sunday], George Will began his comments about Newt Gingrich, now a frontrunner, by saying that he “embodies everything disagreeable about modern Washington.”

Dentists should be furious with not only Gingrich, but with our inattentive dental leaders as well.

Why? 

A couple of days ago, Steve Chapman posted “Gingrich’s corruption” on the ChicagoTribune.com.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman/chi-gingrichs-corruption-20111118,0,4581968.story

Chapman writes:

“Conservatives may be able to forgive Newt Gingrich for being an adulterer and for his flip-flops on climate change and mandatory health insurance. They are willing to put those aside because they think he’s shown a fierce attachment to their cause. But, the latest revelations will be harder to digest, because they suggest that his allegiance is for sale.”

He punctuates the condemnation with a quote from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2011-11-16/newt-gingrich-think-tank-opeds/51246512/1  

“In a series of op-eds stretching over several years, Gingrich repeatedly advocated for various health-care related issues, including electronic health care records, ways to improve the health care sector, and medical malpractice reform without acknowledging the issues were directly connected to members of the Center for Health Transformation, a for-profit think tank he founded in 2003.”

Newt, for a Freddie Mac historian, you’re pretty sly!

According to information that Center for Health Transformation [CHT] spokeswoman Susan Meyers provided USA Today, healthcare stakeholders participating in Gingrich’s “think tank” can expect to pay Gingrich between $5,000 and $200,000, “depending on how many employees attend the center’s meetings and use other services.”

Wouldn’t you just love to ask Ms. Meyers if Gingrich’s think tank members are more likely to realize a return on their investment than their software offers dentists?

I suggested to the editor of the Chicago Tribune to specifically ask ADA President-elect Dr. Robert Faiella questions about the cost and safety of EHRs in dentistry. Then I followed the comment with,

 “And, be sure to tell Dr. Faiella that D. Kellus Pruitt DDS referred you to him. Though we’ve never met, he knows who I am. If you get around to it, you might ask him how much HIPAA compliance raises the cost of dentistry. There are thousands of dentists who would find the President-elect’s answer to that question truly enlightening.”

I Do Find this Fun

Psst…! Chicago Tribune Editor; want a hot tip? I know of a local but far-reaching lead concerning the malignant, corporate corruption described by Steve Chapman in his article. A reporter wouldn’t have to travel far to aggravate employees of a secretive, command and control organization. The ADA National Headquarters is just down the street at 211 East Chicago Avenue. In 2004, the widely-overlooked, not-for-profit’s lack of transparency made it especially vulnerable to Gingrich’s deceptive selling points!

ADA Officials

I think everyone agrees that asking ADA officials reasonable questions about the cost and safety of any high-tech dental product they recommend – including electronic dental record systems – is not unreasonable.

In fact, now that Steve Chapman has shown Newt Gingrich’s profit motives for misleading our dental leaders, caution seems prudent.

This could be ornery-fun if, like me, someone on your staff gets a kick out of asking shy good ol’ boys questions they are hardly ready to answer. I wish the Tribune luck getting past anonymous, unaccountable gatekeepers who shield ADA officials from accountability. I suggest sending your questions to Dr. Robert Faiella. He is not only the unresponsive Chair of the ADA Electronic Health Record Workgroup, but he is the ADA’s latest insensitive President-elect.

Dentists should be furious with Newt Gingrich for commandeering the ADA

Psst…! Chicago Tribune Editor! You interested in another hot tip? I know of a local but potentially far-reaching lead concerning the malignant, corporate corruption described by Steve Chapman in his article exposing Newt Gingrich’s poor manners.

Should you choose to do so, you won’t have to travel far to aggravate employees of a stoic, command and control organization. The national headquarters for the American Dental Association is just down the street at 211 East Chicago Avenue. The widely-forgotten, not-for-profit’s traditional lack of transparency made it especially vulnerable to Gingrich’s deception back in 2004.

I think everyone agrees that asking ADA leaders reasonable questions about the cost and safety of any high-tech dental product they recommend – including electronic dental record systems – is not unreasonable.

In fact, now that Steve Chapman has shown us Newt Gingrich’s motives for misleading our dental leaders, caution seems prudent.

This could be ornery-fun if someone on your staff gets a kick out of asking shy good ol’ boys questions they are not yet ready to answer.

Nevertheless, the ADA will refuse to respond to questions, Editor. Even while I was still a member of the professional organization up until a year ago, it clearly aggravated dental leaders when I repeatedly questioned the cost and safety of EDRs on local, state and national levels of the organization.

I always find evasion intriguing. Maybe you will have better luck getting past anonymous, unaccountable gatekeepers who shield the good ol’ boys from transparency.

Assessment 

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Here’s the official to whom I suggest you futileyly address your questions: Dr. Robert Faiella. He is not only the unresponsive Chair of the ADA Electronic Health Record Workgroup, but he is theADA’s latest insensitive President-elect.

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Journal of the American Dental Association [Letter to the Editor]

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

ADA Image Tarnished?

[By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDSpruitt]

Dear Editor,  

This is a sincere letter which I am sure you will agree should be published in the October 2009 edition of the JADA. Today is July 19, 2009. I am allowing for the six weeks minimum time it requires for letters to appear in print following their selection for publication. It will be posted on the Internet immediately. In spite of this, I trust you will eventually agree to publish it in spite of your archaic rules. Otherwise, by November, history could show that the editor of the JADA arguably denied representation of dental patients’ interests at a most critical time in the history of the profession. That would be regrettable for your own professional reputation as well as for the JADA’s. As an ADA member, if my concerns are ignored, I will hold you publicly accountable for an explanation for a long time.

Public Laundry

From now on, we will agree to wash our laundry in public because otherwise it doesn’t always come clean. You can call the pressure I bring unprofessional if you want, but following the ADA News’ public exhibition of their shoddy ethics this week, it would be foolish to use my methods as an excuse to deny my access to membership. As I am certain you are aware, there were three revisions of “ADA/idm to phase out service” on ADA News Online (7/10, 7/13 and 7/16). I not only welcome a wide-open public discussion about ethics in journalism with representatives of the JADA, but I encourage it. We both know that the ADA needs clean laundry now more than ever before in its history.

ADA Business Enterprises, Inc.

For members who haven’t heard, the 2 ½ year old joint venture of our ADA Business Enterprises, Inc. (ADABEI) with Intelligent Dental Marketing – a Utah-based private business – fell apart in late spring of this year. Months later, our ADA leaders are still less than transparent with membership about what went wrong. I’ve been in business long enough to know that if mistakes by employees are not revealed and discussed, they are bound to happen again and again. And, it’s not like the leaders of the ADA were not warned. They just didn’t take heed. By late 2007, many knowledgeable people involved in the dental industry easily recognized the faults in the partnership between our non-profit professional organization and a for-profit Utah advertising company. In hindsight, anyone can see that ADA/IDM’s slogan, “Image is everything,” clearly betrays an attitude inconsistent with both the mission of the ADA and the Hippocratic Oath. Nevertheless, even the spirit of the slogan was regretfully adopted by the leaders of the ADA’s Business Enterprises, Inc. Now it is the image of the entire ADA that is suffering the damage.

ADABEI

I personally began questioning the accountability of the tricky ADA/IDM business model over two years ago when the profits from ADABEI had officials excited about avoiding the need to raise membership dues last year. Not unexpectedly, in the atmosphere of euphoria, nobody in Chicago wanted to acknowledge the concerns of a handful of alert members. We were cast aside as troublemakers. So how critical is the risk? With massive, unprecedented health care legislation imminent, this is the worst time imaginable for our stoic, image-conscious officers to lead us to nation-wide embarrassment.

Following the Money

The surrender to such temptations for leaders of non-profit organizations is not unprecedented. Do you know why the dues for the American Association of Retired People (AARP) have been kept so low? Not unlike the ADA, the non-profit AARP reaps profits from insurance policies and other products that its leaders sell to membership – even using misleading ads in AARP dues-supported publications. However, unlike dues money, vendor “kickbacks” don’t depend on accountability to members. A few years ago, the profits derived from agreements with vendors predictably became the lifeblood for AARP’s self-perpetuating bureaucracy – eventually influencing their lobbying efforts. Since non-profits like the AARP and the ADA are traditionally respected by lawmakers who like huge campaign donations, a non-profit entity’s lobbyists can be tempted to quietly represent vendors’ interests at members’ expense. Sometimes they get caught.

Lost Confidence

Almost a year ago, the AARP lost valuable member confidence when the organization was forced to suspend sales of “limited benefit” health plans backed by UnitedHealth Group (of Ingenix fame). Sen. Chuck Grassley said the plans which leave policyholders vulnerable to tens of thousands of dollars in costs were sold by the AARP to naïve and trusting members using misleading marketing tricks – not unlike those used in the ADA’s promotion of ADA/IDM. Sen. Grassley sent a detailed letter to CEO Bill Novelli demanding answers to questions about health insurance plans promoted to over a million dues-paying AARP members. Grassley told USA Today reporter Julie Appleby that “Insurance is supposed to limit your exposure to the potentially high cost of a serious illness and these plans do the opposite.” (Nov 7 2008).

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-11-07-aarp-insurance_N.htm

Is AARP-level accountability as good as it gets?

I say no. Attention ADA members – It is my opinion that our leaders are losing the control of our professional organization. The recent failure of ADA/IDM isn’t the first glaring sign of trouble in Headquarters. Over a year ago, the executive director, Dr. James Bramson, was suddenly fired with no explanation. In fact, then President Dr. Mark Feldman commanded that the reasons for the firing will not be disclosed. Obediently, ADA leaders have so far maintained firm control of the top secret information which if released could somehow endanger dental patients (?). Because Bramson’s severance pay came from my dues and not out of Dr. Feldman’s pocket, I think I deserve to know more details. Otherwise, this mistake could happen again and again.

The ADA/IDM disaster is also not the only ADABEI embarrassment I see on the horizon. It is my opinion that CareCredit is also showing signs of silent desperation. On July 9, the officials of the wholly-owned ADA subsidiary purchased an ad on dentalblogs.com titled “Press Release: CareCredit Adds 24-Month, No-Interest [sic] Payment Plan” (no byline).

http://www.dentalblogs.com/archives/administrator/press-release-carecredit-adds-24-month-no-interst-payment-plan/

Even though I approve of the benevolence in the idea of extending credit to those with worsening dental problems – especially during these hard financial times for patients – the anonymous CareCredit (ADA) representative who posted the ad failed to respond to my timely and important question: “If the Red Flags Rule is not delayed for the third time in three weeks, how will it affect those who offer Care Credit?”

Assessment

Nor did he or she respond to my follow up response on July 13. “On July 9 at 4:54 pm, I submitted a sincere question concerning how the Red Flags Rules will affect ADA members who sign up for CareCredit. Instead of posting it with the promise of an answer, you regretfully chose to censor an ADA member. Today, July 13, I have a second and third question: Why did you ignore my first one and who is your boss?”

Conclusion

So far, I’m still waiting for responses to all three questions. I trust you will treat my concerns with more respect, Editor.

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