The author is spot on in my feeble opinion. Most of the current debate is about insurance, the “who pays” side of the equation. What is largely being ignored is the cost of delivering healthcare.
The way I see it, we've got a demographic disaster looming as the massive population of Baby Boomers enters their 70s and their health care associated largely with old age costs go through the roof. I don't see any political solution.
Just like College. No one questions their 8% increase per year.
look at all the old old people....it takes tons of money to take care of them....I'm 63 so I can say this...
we can admit them to the hospital for everything and anything and yes, we'll keep them alive, but not really living.....
when you see these adds for baby boomers getting checked for Hep C I just want to scream...
we can not afford to pay for millions to get the quick fix at $70,000 a pop...
we're going to have to prioritize everything...
babies and children first...
The biggest inputs into the “cost of delivering healthcare” are the federal requirements and the federal agencies that make those requirements. All those bureaucrats have to be paid at higher than average, indeed, higher than their level in the private world, salaries. Much of that cost is not even considered when we talk about the cost of American medicine because the government pays those people but their jobs depend on the medical industry, the industry they are debauching. This could all be fixed with a Congressional act that simply removes the Federal Government from all facets of medicine and insurance. There is still room for pro-active government input on the patent front and that would be severe economic sanctions against any government that allows drugs on patent to be cloned and sold. That would reduce the prices of new drugs as the USA would no longer be the sole source for getting the R&D paid for.