What if? What if we woke up one morning, and the news reported that all of the people who lived in St. Paul, Minnesota had…died?

One cannot even begin to speculate on the emotions, grief, and terror that such a tragedy would engender, the idea that 275,000 people had died.

And yet, according to Families USA, as reported in The New York Times on February 28, 2010, many people – 275,000 – will die prematurely over the next 10 years because they do not have health insurance.

Today, 49 million people are uninsured. That number is projected to increase to somewhere between 57 million and 66 million by 2019.

We also know that the average annual cost of health insurance for a family of four today is around $13,000. That cost is projected to increase to $24,000, or at least 25% of the family’s income by 2020.

These are just some of the costs of zero…that is, the cost of doing nothing about reforming health care. 

But it seems that all of the statistics and all of the tragedy associated with the uninsured – and the way the high cost of health care is bankrupting families – are not moving our society any closer to solutions. What’s wrong?

On a massive scale, the federal government officials in the White House and the Congress are stuck: ideologically, organizationally, and politically. For the 275,000 people in the US who will die prematurely as a result, there is no excuse. In fact they are being sentenced to death by those who could change the course of their impending tragedy.

The work we do in Partnership here at Kaiser Permanente may not seem quite as dramatic as what I have just described. But there is a heavy price for zero…everywhere and anywhere.

We have a unique opportunity and responsibility to give 100% to our Partnership – a Partnership designed to find innovative improvements in quality, patient safety, unparalleled service, affordability, and improving the environment in which we work. At a time when the nation needs a proven model of success in health care to provide a real-life example of what is possible, we have little choice but to never let zero happen.

The commitments made to one another in this Partnership are designed to keep the socially progressive missions of the Unions and Kaiser Permanente successful in the face of tremendous economic, social, and political challenges. We do take stock of the cost of zero.