No Butts

May 6, 2008 -- In my work as a smoking cessation counselor (please see my web site, www.tobaccoteacher.com) I see this short-sighted policy in insurance companies that pay tens of thousands of dollars for radiation and chemotherapy but not mere hundreds of dollars for smoking cessation classes and nicotine replacements (patches and gum). Our own Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005 vetoed (despite my letter) legislation that would have required them to pay for these sensible preventive measures, bowing to their powerful lobbies and their "logic":

"By the time a situation is acute... the insurer, which has been gambling on never being asked to cover procedures that far down the road, has little choice but to cover them, if only to avoid lawsuits, analysts said." [NYT]
In other words, the thinking goes: "We won't pay for prevention because by the time you get sick you'll be somebody else's customer or dead."

This is why healthcare does not belong in the domain of private business. The short-term thinking demanded by performance for stockholders drives poor decisions like these.

Only public institutions have the capacity to make decisions driven by long-term considerations. Thus, though it's enlightened public policy, spending on preventive care will always be shunned by corporate (private) decision-makers.

Conclusion: Single-payer healthcare is better for our health!

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