Letter from Chip Northrup

Health System Is Flawed

After Bassett’s latest round of layoffs, it’s time we address the elephant in the room: America’s uniquely flawed healthcare system manages to make victims of us all, including Bassett.

Exhibit A is, of course, UnitedHealthcare, who, like other private insurance companies, makes money as a toll booth between patient and physician—by aggressively selling relatively inexpensive policies, then works overtime to deny or delay the payment of claims—despite the best efforts and advocacy of healthcare providers, such as the good people at Bassett.

Exhibit B is the pharmaceutical companies that sell the exact same drug in Canada or the UK for half as much as it sells for in the U.S. Again, we all are victimized by this, Bassett included.

When Congress moved to enable the direct sale of pharmaceutical products from Canada and the UK, the pharmaceutical lobby blocked it. The net result is that the U.S. spends, on average, twice as much per capita on health care for worse results. Any other industrialized country has a better way to address healthcare more cost-effectively and achieve better outcomes than we do. Copy one. Soon. Or we will all remain victims of our flawed healthcare system.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown