Energy Inflation and Health Care

What does energy cost inflation have to do with health care? As it turns out - a lot!

Health care is thoroughly enmeshed in the economy (consider - the cost of commodity supplies in the health care cost of living index has recently outstripped many other elements; malpractice insurers factor inflation into their premium structures because claims and settlements look forward for years; and hospitals and health care providers use large quantities of increasingly expensive energy). Not only will we have the usual increases in health care costs resulting from an aging population, increased requirements for innovative technology and treatment, intensivity of care, cartel-like market behavior, and other factors, inflation in energy costs will ultimately feed general inflation and have an additive impact on health care inflation.

Dollars spent for energy will not be available to employers or families to pay for increasing insurance or health care costs. Business closures or dislocations caused by inflating energy costs will mean that currently employed persons whose insurance is company sponsored, may lose their insurance or their ability to pay for insurance.

When the cost of energy is high, business and individuals seek dollar-cheaper energy sources. While the focus of the public is on low impact green energy sources (wind, water, solar), the big-money push is on to burn coal to replace or supplement petroleum-based energy sources. The coal industry has an extensive advertising program touting coal's low cost, plentiful resources, and ready availability. The advertisements do not discuss the track record of black lung disease in coal miners, black lungs in city dwellers exposed to coal smoke, nor the risks of acid rain, the release of strontium and other radioactive materials associated with the burning of coal, and the coal industry's troubling history of environmental degradation. The ads do not discuss the power-generating industry's sidestepping of clean air regulations through the use of grandfathering "add-ons" rather than the application of current standards to all current construction. Coal's immediate focus on dollar cost will seem like a bargain until we understand that the industry's cost-shifting will shift increased health care costs caused by diseases and environmental consequences of coal burning to the public.

There are alternatives. This is an incredible era of genetic exploration. The laboratory techniques which bring us a sophisticated understanding of the human genome could also be devoted to bringing genetic solutions to lower energy cost and availability. For instance, since nitrogen-fixing bacteria free legumes from the need for added commercial fertilizers, can we develop a gene-based nitrogen fixing technology which will substantially reduce the need for petroleum-based fertilizers on other crops? Can we use such a technology to produce biofuels, using marginal otherwise unfarmable land, while high-quality land, unencumbered by high doses of industrial grade petroleum fertilizers, is used to grow food essential for a healthy population. Can we move towards energy independence?

We have a choice: continue to destroy the environment, our health and our economy or use informed innovative science to help us deal with tough issues, such as energy and health.