We must join the crusade to reform healthcare.(publisher's page)

When my friend AARP CEO A. Barry Rand joined President Barack Obama at the White House in June as the president announced a landmark agreement to lower drug costs for older Americans. I was both pleased and encouraged. Probably the single biggest burden limiting the capacity for prosperity of all Americans is the skyrocketing cost of healthcare. An estimated 40 million-plus Americans have no health insurance and rely on emergency room medicine, over-the-counter remedies, or a wing and a prayer to protect their health. Those of us fortunate enough to have health insurance have watched the rising costs eat away at our wealth.

In a move the president described as "historic," the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have pledged $80 billion over the next decade toward the reform of our healthcare system. Obama's plan is to pass on those savings to Medicare beneficiaries by halving the prescription drug expenses of those who fall into the Part D coverage gap of $2,700 to $6,100, also known as the doughnut hole. They would pay only 50% of the cost of brand-name medications covered in their plan instead of the 100% they must pay now. (Currently, federal payments for the drug purchases of millions of seniors end once an annual spending limit, $2,700, is reached, resuming only after the beneficiaries--often on fixed incomes--have spent thousands of dollars of their own money until coverage resumes at $6,100.) The new benefit is expected to be part of health reform legislation that Congress will consider this fall. Such reform cannot happen too soon.

Eighty billion dollars over 10 years seems like a lot of money--until you consider the total cost we collectively pay for healthcare. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, U.S. healthcare spending totaled $2.4 trillion in 2007--that's $7,900 for each man, woman and child in America. Last year, these expenditures rose at twice the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,700 last year; the annual premium for singles averaged more than $4,700.

I have been personally impacted by every aspect of this issue. As a member of the board of Aetna, I am a diligent supporter of the efforts of Aetna Chairman and CEO Ronald A. Williams to improve access to affordable healthcare. As the chairman and publisher of BLACK ENTERPRISE I have watched the cost of health insurance rise inexorably for both my company as well as for our employees, even as our human resources department struggles mightily to hold those costs at bay without reducing the quality of our coverage. And as a youthful 74-year-old, I often joke that I spend more time and money at pharmacies than I do at supermarkets. Humor may take some of the bite out of it, but skyrocketing drug costs are anything but funny.

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Even more sobering are the heartbreaking choices that must be made when a loved one is coping with terminal illness. Our family experienced this during the past several months, as my wife's brother spent the last three months in a hospital struggling with the complications of diabetes and several other chronic conditions. In addition to the emotional toll paid by his loved ones, the medical costs of his hospitalization amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. If this is a painful and costly ordeal for my family, one of relative means, imagine the devastation such situations routinely cause to middle- and low-income families.

That's why it's not enough to think of our healthcare crisis as a national issue. We must think of it as an intensely personal issue--one that effects every individual and every family in America. We can no longer afford to delay the reform of our healthcare system and the establishment of access to affordable healthcare for every American.

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