occupy
What does the history of the American railroad system and healthcare have in common?
Growing up, I always found trains and the railways to be fascinating. I remember my Uncle had a model train set in his basement that weaved in and out of detailed mountains and quaint hand painted towns. I was always fascinated how one had to plan carefully where each line of track was laid to maximize the amount of space the train had to move about the landscape.
Because of this interest, whenever I hear something on railroads I tend to pay attention.
Planning and fundraising: Railroad’s beginnings
A story on NPR described in great detail the history of the railroad system in the US, and how this system forever shaped the way our economy works. The author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America highlighted how politics and business became intertwined leading to some of the problems we are witnessing today in American politics.
However, it was one point regarding the building and financing of the railroad system that I want to highlight.
The author talked about how the railroad system was being built somewhere between 30 and 40 years before it was really going to be used.
Just think about that for a second; 30 or 40 years before it would be used. Think about the planning that must have had to go into that process.
Because of this time delay, there was difficulty getting buy in from across the board to fund such an initiative; therefore, for the most part, taxpayer dollars had to subsidize the investment. Without going into more details about the economics of this, I want to focus in on the fact that a group of leaders designed a system 30 years before it was “really” needed.
Transition point: Click here for a detailed railroad timeline and history.
The railroad and healthcare?
So what does the history of the railroad have to do with healthcare?
If one looks at the history of healthcare, similarly to the history of the railroad, there are themes. The current healthcare system has evolved over time to become more expensive and inefficient but was it created that way?
There have been some excellent articles written on the history of healthcare – while I will not go into detail on this here, a nice piece in Slate describes some of the humble beginnings of the healthcare system we know today:
“What we recognize as modern medicine, Cohn writes, began in the 1920s. That’s when doctors and hospitals, having only during the previous decade learned enough about disease that they could be reliably helpful in treating sick people, began charging more than most individuals could easily pay. To close this gap, which worsened with the advent of the Great Depression, the administrator of Baylor Hospital in Dallas created a system that caught on elsewhere and eventually evolved into Blue Cross. The Blues were essentially nonprofit health insurers who served local community organizations like the Elks. In exchange for a tax break, Blue Cross organizations kept premiums reasonably low.”
Bottom line: “Capitalism can’t deliver decent health care.”
The author concludes that: “Markets can do many wonderful things, which is why I’m glad to live in a capitalist country. But they’ve made a complete hash of the healthcare system. Doesn’t that reality deserve more than passing respect?”
How much did the pioneers of healthcare plan or even think 30 years ahead? While there is not way for them to predict a meteoric rise in chronic disease and obesity, didn’t they think that healthcare was only going to become more important?
How often did the originators of health insurance think 30 years down the road to consider the impact of their decisions?
Was the healthcare “system” created with the future in mind or simply something that had to be done at the time to “fix” what was broken?
Maybe I am taking this a bit far, but similar to prevention in healthcare, people often don’t want to address (read pay for) something that is not going to be immediately beneficial.
At the time, was the railroad system immediately beneficial? According to the story, no. However, without that railroad system decades later, many things would not have been possible. That railroad system literally changed the United States.
What can we do to plan 30 years ahead for healthcare? Can we? Is this even possible in the current political system?
Maybe we should do ourselves a favor and consider that the current system is broken, and it may be time to plan ahead for something better.