In all, 90,000 patients die each year as a result of hospital-acquired infections.

The major culprit? Health care workers don’t wash their hands often enough, thus allowing germs to jump from patient to patient. The simple solution would be to require health care workers to wash their hands often, but studies have shown that it is extremely difficult to persuade health care workers to do this. So, the spread of disease marches on.

But there are other factors at work. Overcrowding, contaminated air conditioning systems, dirty ventilator tubes used in surgeries, overuse of antibiotics, etc. contribute to the problem. In fact, most patients who contract one or more staph infections while in a hospital were admitted to the hospital completely free of infection.

Beyond the pain and suffering of patients, superbugs cost the health care industry a fortune. For instance, a scheduled 4-day hospital stay for surgery that turns into a 40-day life-and-death struggle with a staph infection can end up costing a health insurance company hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional expenses.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a nasty bacterial infection that is resistant to a number of different antibiotics. Staph infections like MRSA are more dangerous (and far more difficult to treat) in persons with weak immune systems–making it especially dangerous for the ailing hospital population.

Share on Facebook

So does health insurance reform have a pulse? It depends on who you talk to. Most Democrats believe it does, and are thrilled to have the President finally put out a plan that he calls “his own.” And even though there are really no new ideas in this plan–it’s very similar to what the Senate passed in December–most Democrats feel at least there is some hope they can get something passed.

Republicans on the other hand seem to think this is another attempt by the Democratic administration to simply push them into a corner with a plan they feel just doesn’t work.

So where does this leave the average American who hopes simply that health insurance will become more affordable? It’s tough to say, but at some level I know I’m at least happy to know the dialog isn’t completely dead. While some special interests out there are probably quite happy with the status quo, polls suggest that most Americans–while they may not agree on what should be done–feel that something needs to be.

The reality is that both sides of the aisle still consider this issue a bellwether, and neither wants to be seen to fail in the eyes of their constituencies.

But based on Obama’s proposal and Cantor’s comments, it appears as if a successful compromise isn’t in our immediate future.

Share on Facebook