THE CURE: HOW CAPITALISM CAN SAVE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE By David Gratzer

25 January 2007 | Vanity

[shrinkermd]

The book was published in 2006 by Encounter Books. There are 200 pages plus endnotes and an index. The cost is $25 but I bought mine for $18.

Some richo or PAC should buy a copy of this book for each member of Congress. It would go a long way to correcting misinformation that is read almost daily into the Congressional Record.

[Alia]

Excellent - thank you for posting this.

[Dog Gone]

It sounds thought-provoking.

We are facing a healthcare challenge of monumental proportions as the Boomers reach medicare age.

And we can and do spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the final months of life, and for what?

[Physicist]

My three recommendations for fixing our healthcare system are:

1. Restore the price mechanism.
2. Restore the price mechanism.
3. Restore the price mechanism.

I'd give you my recommendations for controlling the cost and quality of a college education, but they're exactly the same.

[hometoroost]

"And we can and do spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the final months of life, and for what?"

Mostly because no one wants to be the one to tell grandfather to put his affairs in order or that it's time to pull the plug on one's aunt.

Even socialized medicine doesn't directly do this. They just put you on the waiting list and everyone can say that the sick and elderly have equal access to health care (if they live long enough).

[Dog Gone]

Mostly because no one wants to be the one to tell grandfather to put his affairs in order or that it's time to pull the plug on one's aunt.

That's probably true, but grandfather should understand the situation and do it without being told.

Art Buchwald said, I'm just not going to do kidney dialysis anymore. Let nature take its course.

That's the right thing to do. I'm not sure it's even compassionate, much less a wise use of resources, to prolong the life of someone who is on borrowed time as it is.

[ClaireSolt]

It is shocking to see elderly people lose the last few months of their lives to expensive, discretionary surgery. Somebody should find a way to shame docs who do things like double mastectomies on frail old ladies who can't possibly live long enough to die of breast cancer.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

From 2001 -- How Much Money For One Year Of Life? http://www.forbes.com/2001/11/05/1105aspirin.html

---

You ask a good question, as does this older article. I am not in favor of spending an entire family's estate to keep 'alive' a truly brain-dead person. However,

--and I will not get into a knock-down, drag-out here with anyone on this, it's a matter of faith and conviction, not reason--I'll say here that I'm convinced Terri Schiavo wanted to--and deserved--a longer life. I contend that either one believes 'thou shalt not kill' or they don't. I personally am convinced Terri was capable of living without all the paraphernelia. She never got the chance.

As regards cold reason, I will point out that, were TORT REFORM truly enacted and if certain powers that be lost their stranglehold on U.S. medical schools, we would have lower healthcare prices two ways: from more competition and from reduced malpractice suit hidden cost-shifting.

[hometoroost]

True, but when someone else is paying for it some people make bad choices.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Great find. Thanks!

[EQAndyBuzz]

"THE CURE: HOW CAPITALISM CAN SAVE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE By David Gratzer"

I will give in to the Socialists. This is how you fix health care:

At the age of 21 the government buys you a one million dollar universal life insurance policy. You use the cash value of the policy whenever you get sick. At 65 the policy is paid in full and the cash account is yours to use for medical benefits. If you die before age 65, your beneficiary gets the policy and the government gets back the cash value.

[longshadow]

My three recommendations for fixing our healthcare system are:

1. Restore the price mechanism.
2. Restore the price mechanism.
3. Restore the price mechanism.

And, failing that:

"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."

- P.J. O'Rourke

[sarasmom]

It is never a good position to be in, being calculated as of more worth dead, than alive...

Particularly by your government....

[Sarastro]

Good post!

Health care costs are high for reasons such as these (not all inclusive):
1. We're rich and can afford to spend more on health care.
2. Modern technology provides outstanding, but high-cost treatments.
3. With third-party payment, there is no incentive not to overconsume.
4. Tort liability forces health-care providers to practice defensive medicine.
5. Third-party payment leads to huge armies of paper shufflers who raise health-care costs, but provide no health care.
6. The health-care industry has been very slow to use information technology to improve efficiency. Partly this is because we have a large number of small providers who can't afford the investment, and partly it's because of Federal prohibitions on sharing health-care information.
7. The medical ethic is to do all that's possible for the patient, almost regardless of how hopeless the prognosis. (It is said that half of a person's total lifetime health-care costs are incurred in the last year, treating the illness from which s/he will inexorably die.)

The government is hard-pressed to address the situation because
a) There are huge numbers of people with vested interests in the current system.
b) No politician appears willing to challenge the assumption that health care is a right.

As has been discussed in other threads, Constitutional rights are negative rights (freedom FROM having the government impair your rights to free speech, assembly, religion, security, liberty, etc.). Not positive rights (the right to have food, shelter, clothing, education, health care, a job, etc.). Positive rights for ME can only be provided if the government coerces YOU to pay for them, thus trampling your negative rights (i.e., freedom from government taking YOUR property to give ME).

I don't think that many people, including FReepers, would want to see a person die for lack of health-care. If s/he can't afford to pay and no charitable person steps forward to help, a responsible government would see that the care is provided. But that's a far stretch from providing luxury health care to those unwilling or unable to pay for it AS A MATTER OF RIGHT.

Analogously, if a person would otherwise starve to death, we feed him at a soup kitchen, not the Four Seasons Restaurant.

So:
1. Align incentives properly (as with Medical Savings Accounts),
2. Reduce tort liability,
3. Use information technology to increase efficiency and effectiveness,
4. Minimize government interference in the health-care sector,
5. Increase the prevalence of living wills (whereby people refuse unnecessary end-of-life procedures), and
6. Provide government funding for only necessary care as a charity to those who have failed to provide any better for themselves.

[calljack]

You have no idea how a universal life policy works do you??

[Snoopers-868th]

That's probably true, but grandfather should understand the situation and do it without being told.

Art Buchwald said, I'm just not going to do kidney dialysis anymore. Let nature take its course.

That's the right thing to do. I'm not sure it's even compassionate, much less a wise use of resources, to prolong the life of someone who is on borrowed time as it is.

Why don't we all give up right now. Look at the savings you could provide your family. How 'conservative' of you.

Any one of us could be in Art Buchwald's position and Art made the choice for himself, not because it was expected of him. What about eliminating organ transplants along with neonatal care of premature births? Afterall, those shopping for someone else's organ is near death facing expensive procedures.

Car accident, never mind EMS leave 'em on the pavement but don't forget to rescue those guys on the mountain or in the sailboat on rough seas.

I am so disgusted by this mindset on FreeRepublic. Maybe you should talk to your grandparents or parents and see how they feel about denying themselves medical procedures because someone says they are in an end-of-life circumstance because you think it is the right thing to do. What age would that be anyway?

[Dog Gone]

What right do you to have hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical care, which you won't pay for, to keep you alive a few months longer?

I'll pay for that, and I don't know you, and based on your post, I don't like you.

So what gives you the right? Why should I work damn hard at my job to keep you alive for a couple more months when you hate my guts?

[Chena]

Bookmark. (thanks, shrinkermd)

[Snoopers-868th]

What right do you to have hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical care, which you won't pay for, to keep you alive a few months longer?

Presently, I have my own medical plan but the Federal Government (through those elected) has decided they also want to provide it. And who is going to make the determination that my life has no worth? Would that be you?There are all types of social programs and we all (including you) feed at the government trouth. Think about the tax breaks you take that someone else may not qualify for.

I'll pay for that, and I don't know you, and based on your post, I don't like you.

Well, I probably have paid for some of your relatives via any number of the SS programs, GI bills, student loans, etc. Should I ask for my money back because they were not worthy. I too worked hard and pay taxes and have for many years. What does liking me have to do with it? If you liked me, you would be willing to commute my sentence?

So what gives you the right? Why should I work damn hard at my job to keep you alive for a couple more months when you hate my guts?

Decisions regarding my life gives me the right and who determined I only have a couple more months? You have no right to take my life. Obviously, you think you are the only one that has worked hard and that makes you worthy to make decisions regarding others lives. Point me to where I said, I "hate [your] guts. I never said that. You need to develop some value for life and recognize that you too are taking from our society.

[djreece]

marking