Thursday, November 11, 2010

TheraMatrix Leads Healthcare Reform Battle

Back in Michigan, a little company might well be doing more to fight the cost of health care than all that the Affordable Care Bill (aka Obamacare) has done.

Wish we could bring the company, TheraMatrix, to Utah.

I read about TheraMatrix in Wednesday's USA Today. TheraMatrix felt physical therapy for Ford Motor employees was way, way too expensive, and figured they could offer it at way, way reduced rates, so they stepped in and did just that, offering it to Ford employees at, according to a TheraMatrix official, about half the price that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan had been charging.

How did Blue Cross respond? They barred TheraMatrix from the Blue Cross network. Was this because the costs were so low, it threatened the profit margins of the other providers? It appears that is the case.

What makes this story a big one, not a small thing, is that the real trick to lowering health-care costs is not to turn health care over to the government, but rather to return it to the free market. We have strangled the free market's ability to operate in the health-care industry and then, ironically, we have wondered if the free market is failing us, and we've thought to move to government care.

TheraMatrix shows us costs are inflated, and that competition can lower them, if we will just allow the competition. I wish enough of us were displeased with Blue Cross of Michigan that we would contact them en masse with our displeasure, perhaps prompting them to accept TheraMatrix. Strike a blow for free enterprise. Strike a blow for affordable health care.

Real health-care reform might require this, eternal vigilance, some call it, voicing our opinion when and where it is needed. Real health-care reform might be as attainable through us, as a people, demanding lower prices rather than government trying to change things.

Don't know if two or three calls from those who might read this might make a difference, but I did just leave a message of protest at 248-448-6876. The number reached a Blue Cross office of federal programs, but it was the best number I am coming up with at the moment. Maybe Blue Cross has been getting other calls of protest since the USA Today article, and a few more will help.

And, I wonder if TheraMatrix would be interested in bringing its offerings and prices to Utah? I don't know whether our prices are so high that TheraMatrix could help, but perhaps it is so.

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