Healthcare Spending May be Good For You

by Michael Shulman
BiotechBlitz



This article is more about the everyday miracles in medicine we often take for granted -- as patients, onlookers and investors -- than strictly about investing.

This past weekend, I attended a concert by Ronan Tynan at The Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, New Jersey -- a smallish venue that has the best acoustics I have ever experienced a consumer of concerts and music. I attended the concert in the hope he would sing one particular song, Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears, that's a song about the first person ever processed on Ellis Island, the quintessential Irish immigrant, Annie Moore.

Annie Moore was my grand aunt, my grandfather’s sister and my grandfather, Philip Moore, was the third person to be processed on the island.

I went to the concert with my two distant cousins who live in Ocean Grove, and whom I met for the first time last year when my grand aunt was properly identified by a genealogist as being "the" Annie Moore, the first person to be processed on Ellis Island.

My cousins and I weren't disappointed as Ronan sang "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears" as the last song of the concert before the obligatory encores. And he introduced us to the crowd, simply because we were related to Annie.

But all of the applause really belonged to Mr. Tynan, for he sang as if his voice was born divine and he moved around the stage, and danced a bit, as if he has two good legs. He does not – he wears two prostheses inside long black pants, which makes him somewhat stiff-legged, somewhat stiff backed, a medical miracle and one of the toughest men I have ever met, which we did after the concert.

And, most of the people in the audience knew this about Ronan, made note of how he has overcome much, and then, likely, forgot about it.

We all do that everyday as our children have cavities filled, eye glasses are exchanged for contacts or Lasik surgery, hernia surgery is now outpatient care and the sterile couple has several children. Overcoming medical problems is all commonplace, almost ordinary – and almost all of it new in the past 25 years.

There is a belief, now being found in the voices of almost everyone running for president, that we spend too much money on healthcare in this country. We certainly waste too much of our healthcare money in this country. In fact, my guess is 30%-40% of the total tab (more than half a trillion dollars) is wasted. We spend too little on certain kinds of healthcare that would save us money in the long run and improve and extend lives.

But spend too much? James Tobin, who already has one Nobel Prize for economics, has explored the topic and believes, using a rather lonely voice, that increased spending on healthcare increases productivity and increased spending may actually be good for the economy. I tend to agree.

I am sure Ronan Tynan agrees – and my family, having been through hernia, back and thyroid surgery, a broken leg repaired in a physician’s office, a serious neurological tic,
root canals and more that I can't remember, would agree.

All of the procedures and treatments have enabled us to be more productive members of the community and the economy. And, as the nation sees this side of healthcare spending -- and if politicians can redirect healthcare dollars and get out of the way of the incredible creativity found in the industry -- the opportunities for investors will only increase.




BiotechBlitz is a regular contributor to BioHealth Investor
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