Posted: January 4, 2010

Barbara Wallace Ed.D.
President and CEO,
Virginia Business Coalition on Health
 
The coalition that Wallace heads is a statewide, not-for-profit, employer-focused organization that seeks appraoches to workplace wellness and affordable, high-quality health care for member employers. The organization belongs to the National Business Coalition on Health where Wallace sits on the board of governors, among other positions. Previously Wallace was a higher-education administrator and development officer for Illinois State University. She has also been director of continuing professional education for the College of Sciences and Health Professions at Old Dominion University and an extension specialist at Virginia Tech. She is a graduate of James Madison University, Virginia Tech and the College of William and Mary.
 
What is one aspect of the current system that works well and shouldn’t be changed?

This is a difficult question given the economic downturn and the strong emphasis on “what’s wrong with health care.”
 
At its best, American health care can be very good. I would say that the large employer-sponsored health plan works well for those fortunate enough to have it. The immediate value of health insurance coverage is peace of mind.
 
Employees who have a good health insurance plan with rich benefits that affords them open access to a multitude of health care professionals including family physicians, specialists, dentists, laboratory professionals and chiropractors are quite satisifed with what they have. This scenario is usually found in large corporations that are self-insured and provide cradle-to-grave health care for their active and reitred employees. A good example would be the Microsoft employee and his wife featured on “Frontline: Sick Around America” this past spring who underwent eight years of fertility treatments, and insurance covered all these costs plus all of the costs of a very complicated pregnancy and birth.
 
Of course, the flip side is that as the economy worsens and this leads to job losses, we are faced with more and more Americans without health insurance . Workers who seek to purchase health insurance on the open market have a much different story to share. Costs are prohibitive for many.
 
What is the biggest problem with the current system in need of change?

The soaring costs of health care and the growing number of uninsured Americans are the biggest visible problems with the United States health system. The invisible problem is poor quality. More health care is not always better care. Thirty percent of the care we deliver in this country (almost $700 billion annually) goes for tests, procedures, doctors’ visits, hospital stays and other services that may not improve one’s health. This can be summed up in too much overuse, underuse and misuse of services in the health care system.
Access to basic health care continues to be a major issue for almost 47 million uninsured Americans. The value of health capital foregone each year due to un-insurance is estimated at between $65 billion and $130 billion. The consequences/statistics of un-insurance are staggering and well-documented.
Quality care is care that works, is safe and is tailored for patients. The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality defines quality care as “doing the right thing for the right patient, at the right time, in the right way to achieve the best possible results.”