This article has several distortions and misses the point regarding health care costs.
“However, there is almost no evidence U.S. health outcomes are better than those in other rich countries. A variety of statistics on mortality and morbidity suggest outcomes may be worse in this country than they are elsewhere.”
Most outcome measures for cancer and heart disease show that US healthcare is superior in terms of survival rates. Life expectancy figures are a refelction of many other variables unrelated to medical care.
“Most is financed by the government or reimbursed through insurance purchased by our employers. The share of our cash household income needed to pay for health care and health insurance premiums has actually fallen over the past half century”
This is undoubedtly true. However, when the author goes on to state that other countries (with socialized health care) pay substantially less for health care, he fails to state the reason for this fact which seems to undercut the purpose for writing the article, that is high health care costs. The obvious reason that socialized countries spend less money is rationing and limited access.
The real problem with high healthcare costs is the involvement of 3rd party and government payers. By reducing the out of pocket costs for consumers, there has been historically, little incentive for providers and consumers to control costs. As governemnt increases control, it will, out of necessity, ration services.
What we really need is less 3rd party intervention from insurance companies and the government. Healthcare insurance should be real, catastophic insurance, not pre-paid healthcare or a government program. People need to rely on their own savings and health care savings accounts for routine expenses and deductables. We also need to allow healthcare providers the freedom to create delivery systems that compete for consumers on the basis of cost, just like other industries. Encouraging competition for direct consumers dollars would go a long ways towards reducing overall unit costs while improving quality and access for most people. Reducing administrative expenses arbitrarily imposed by 3rd party and government payers is one immediate benefit. This would have advantages for all consumers including government purchasing (which could be a voucher) for safety net programs.
The real problem with high healthcare costs is the involvement of 3rd party and government payers.
Mandated services increase costs in two ways: first, everybody must pay for them, and secondly, people may use the services that they wouldn’t use if they paid for them out of pocket.
The real problem with high healthcare costs is the involvement of 3rd party and government payers.
Mandated services increase costs in two ways: first, everybody must pay for them, and secondly, people may use the services that they wouldn’t use if they paid for them out of pocket.