It’s time to invent a new health care delivery system in Kentucky, and it should be driven by health care providers, Sen. Stephen Meredith, D-Leitchfield, said in opening remarks at the Howard L Bost Memorial 2023 from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Health Policy Forum, held October 11 in Lexington.
Before making this assertion, Meredith highlighted a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln and Peter Drucker: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” » Then he said, “Let’s do it.” Let’s create a new health care delivery system.
The speech was titled “How to Fix an Irreparably Broken Health System?” »
Meredith spent decades as a leader in health care administration before being elected to the Senate in 2016. When he retired as head of Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center, now a a subsidiary of Owensboro Health, this hospital was one of the four most financially strong hospitals with fewer than 100 beds in Kentucky. He also served as CEO of the Grayson County Hospital Foundation, which employed most of the local doctors and managed their practices.
Meredith, a Republican, is chair of the Senate Health Services Committee, co-chair of the Government Contracts Review Committee and a member of other committees, including the recently formed Children and Families Committee.
“He knows the challenges facing our health care delivery system because he has seen them firsthand,” said Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the foundation, in introducing him.
Meredith opened her speech by listing several known challenges to the existing health care system, including the “astronomical” cost of care that means the average person can no longer afford it.
He also called the “masses” of health professionals leaving the system alarming and called out one of the largest insurance companies in the United States for making an $86.4 billion profit. last year as one of the “most damning indictments in our history.” current health care delivery system. “
He pointed out that the United States spends $1.2 trillion on health care, but its health outcomes are among the worst.
“The problem is we know what the problems are; we don’t act on the issues,” Meredith said.
He went on to point out that the state’s transition to a managed care program for Medicaid has been in place since 2012, “and we have not improved the health of our population.” Additionally, he said the state’s Medicaid budget is $10 billion to serve 1.3 million people, which is as big as it should ever be.
“In inventing a new health care delivery system in the future, we must all agree and recognize that there is already enough money in the health care delivery system to care for every man, woman and child of this country if we spend it. in the right way,” he said.
Additionally, he said, “If we are truly improving the health of the population and getting people back into gainful employment, we should have enough money to take care of everyone.” »
To do this, he said we must have a clear mission and vision for how to fix the system.
“If we’re all united on this, it’s pretty simple,” he said. “We are here to heal the sick, to help relieve pain and suffering, to comfort the dying, and to improve the quality of life for those we serve. If we are all united on this, doesn’t that move us in one direction?
“And one thing I didn’t mention is that it doesn’t say anywhere about making a profit. Now I am a capitalist to the nth degree and I believe in profit. But that’s when you bring value to the system. You increase efficiency and you do it in a better way. And we don’t.
He said changes should be made at the local level by moving to a Medicaid block grant program, which would allow local governments to determine how Medicaid dollars are spent, with an incentive to save money for other purposes local.
“If you improve the health of the population, whatever savings you make, you will continue to improve your community,” he said. “If you want to invest in your school system, if you want to invest in infrastructure, if you want to invest in broadband, it’s up to you to keep it. »
Meredith said the main reason we don’t do such things is fear: “People don’t like risk. Fear stops us from doing what we need to do.
Melissa Patrick is a reporter for Kentucky Health News, an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. She has received several competitive fellowships, including the 2016-2017 Nursing and Health Care Workforce Media Fellow Fellowship from the Center for Health, Media & Policy, which allowed her to focus and write on workforce issues nursing work in Kentucky; and the Association of Health Care Journalists Regional Health Journalism Program One-Year Fellowship2017-18. She is a former registered nurse and holds degrees in journalism and leadership and community development from the UK.
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