First thing is that it has to be stated that we currently DO have government regulated health care. For instance state governments have passed laws telling insurance companies what care they have to cover. As it turns out this actually makes the situation worse:
In some states, regulations make it impossible for individuals to purchase a low-cost plan that would provide only catastrophic coverage. In other cases, the benefit mandates and insurance rules might raise premiums to the point that insurance is prohibitively expensive for many people.from an article The Effect of State Regulations on Health Insurance Premiums: A Revised Analysis. Interesting to note of course is that insurance companies are mandated to cover expensive medical treatments and drugs but none of the less expensive preventative measures. I am not saying it is the case in this country that powerful pharmaceutical and medical lobbies find it convenient and extremely profitable to be able to get state legislatures to force insurance companies to cover their drugs and treatments. I am not saying that...
So it should be clear that the current unworkable system is not a free market system - it is a government regulated system and that regulation can certainly be used by vested interests.
Health care is further complicated by the quantity of inaccuracies and unknowns in the field. A stunning fact is that 20% or more of sick people can be cured by a placebo. As a matter of fact an article in the Washington Post, re-published here, showed that a sugar pill is more effective than anti-depressants in managing depression! Here is another interesting fact:
America's healthcare-system-induced deaths are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.
The full article on that can be found here.
Given that we spend 15% of our GDP on health care vs. 8% to 10% in other countries considered healthier than ours it certainly doesn't appear that under the current system the money is being well spent.
So something is definitely crooked in the American health care system. I think one way a difference could be made would be to ensure that there is no mis-representation going on with our health care providers. We spend 1.5 to 2 times the amount of our GDP on healthcare than other countries that have lower mortality rates than we do?!?! Do you think there is some fraud in the system that when gotten rid of could lower our costs? Perhaps expensive less effective treatments are being marketed/lobbied for like crazy over less expensive more effective treatments. To wit - recently a court ordered a mother to have her son undergo chemo-therapy. Expensive and extremely doubtful in efficacy.
So the next thing we look for is who benefits from a wealthy country in poor health that spends 15% of its GDP on health care? Don't strain yourself too much on that one. The U.S. is home to more than half of the top 12 pharmaceutical companies and easily has the most pharmaceutical companies of any country. Make no mistake that they make a lot of money off of the current system.
Health care is further complicated by the quantity of inaccuracies and unknowns in the field. A stunning fact is that 20% or more of sick people can be cured by a placebo. As a matter of fact an article in the Washington Post, re-published here, showed that a sugar pill is more effective than anti-depressants in managing depression! Here is another interesting fact:
America's healthcare-system-induced deaths are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.
The full article on that can be found here.
Given that we spend 15% of our GDP on health care vs. 8% to 10% in other countries considered healthier than ours it certainly doesn't appear that under the current system the money is being well spent.
So something is definitely crooked in the American health care system. I think one way a difference could be made would be to ensure that there is no mis-representation going on with our health care providers. We spend 1.5 to 2 times the amount of our GDP on healthcare than other countries that have lower mortality rates than we do?!?! Do you think there is some fraud in the system that when gotten rid of could lower our costs? Perhaps expensive less effective treatments are being marketed/lobbied for like crazy over less expensive more effective treatments. To wit - recently a court ordered a mother to have her son undergo chemo-therapy. Expensive and extremely doubtful in efficacy.
So the next thing we look for is who benefits from a wealthy country in poor health that spends 15% of its GDP on health care? Don't strain yourself too much on that one. The U.S. is home to more than half of the top 12 pharmaceutical companies and easily has the most pharmaceutical companies of any country. Make no mistake that they make a lot of money off of the current system.
It is also interesting that currently the debate is not about the cost vs. benefits of the treatments we are spending so much money on - it is about lowering the cost to the consumer for insurance coverage. What?!?! Anyone else thinking cart before the horse? Lowering the soaring cost of health care is not about lowering the insurance costs - those will go lower if the cost of the underlying care they have to cover goes down. That would happen freely competing market for health care - one we do not have. Some treatments have the advantage of the government making it the law that they have to be covered.
So trying to address the problem with a national healthcare program in a country with such a powerful pharmaceutical and medical lobby is folly. In the end we will end up paying as much or more of our production toward healthcare forcibly via taxes. This is in fact a dream for wealthy companies with powerful lobbies.
Another aspect is making the consumer accountable for their health care. Currently most consumers don't even know how much their healthcare costs them. "The insurance takes care of it." This is a terrible system - the doctor responsible for making you healthy doesn't even work for you. They work for the insurance company - after all it is the insurance that will in the end pay them. In turn the insurance company is told who and what to cover by state legislatures.
A better solution is a free market system where you can purchase dollar amount coverage for protection against getting certain illnesses. For instance you could purchase $20K in coverage in case you get cancer. If you get cancer your insurance company gives you $20K. It is now yours to spend on whatever treatment you choose to pay for.
Obama made a very intelligent statement - we have to change the incentive in health care. Now the incentive factually is that a person gets an illness that doesn't kill them but requires continuous treatment. With the above system which is more consumer based, treatments with higher success rates for curing what ails you will win out. After all you have $20K to deal with your cancer. You will seek out and spend it on the most effective treatment.
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