Conservatives are going to loose, and socialized medicine will become the norm in America, UNLESS conservatives get their act together and start selling market-based healthcare, something we don’t have and haven’t had for a long, long, long time.
It’s time to channel your inner libertarian and start railing against the subsidies from Medicare and Medicaid that squeeze heavy prices onto private, non-subsidized consumers. It’s time to take on the AMA and occupational licensing. Yes, I’m calling for an end to licensing doctors and replacing the licensing scheme with voluntary certification. Why? Look up Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, and his work on occupational licensing. He called for the same thing, and this was before costs sky-rocketed.
To put it bluntly, the left has completely captured this debate. They own in. They’ve managed to frame the debate in terms of government handouts for free versus super-expensive private insurance. Anybody with a brain can see that the high cost of healthcare in this country has zilch to do with insurance companies (whose premiums merely reflect provider costs) and EVERYTHING to do with providers. Unfortunately, doctors have so much respect and political clout that nobody outside of the economics profession talks of taking them on.
Why does it cost an arm and a leg to have a cast put on or get some antibiotics for a cold? Licensing laws require doctors to be present, even if only for five minutes or to do something like give a shot, while nurses and the like do the bulk of the work. Modifying licensing laws won’t help, as these laws are invariably written by those in the occupations (doctors write the licensing laws, electricians write the licensing laws for electricians, etc., it’s called regulatory capture—again, look it up). We need to throw away the licensing requirements and replace them with voluntary certification programs.
Nurses can open up dirt-cheap clinics for minor ailments, without needing to pay for valuable doctors’ time. People could open up clinics that specialize only in stitching up cuts, or putting on casts, etc., all for much less than a fully-staffed doctor-led clinic could. It could work, but only if the law allows it.
The current licensing laws are like requiring you to see somebody with a PhD in engineering to have the hard drive replaced on your PC. It’s ludicrous.
Whoops, loose = lose, heh heh.
I dunno. If you read through every headline, even so-called 'universal' health care countries have private facilities creeping in. Public or private? The fight is on.
“Anybody with a brain can see that the high cost of healthcare in this country has zilch to do with insurance companies (whose premiums merely reflect provider costs) and EVERYTHING to do with providers. Unfortunately, doctors have so much respect and political clout that nobody outside of the economics profession talks of taking them on.”
You could not be more wrong. You are so ignorant I don’t know where to start.
Doctors are not permitted to collectively bargain, they are not in charge of huge powerful lobbies. They have no clout. Do you have any idea what has happened to doctor’s insurance reimbursement in the last ten years? Primary care/internists cannot break even. Medical schools in the US used to have 40 applicants for each spot. Now they can’t fill them. Welcome foreign medical school grads.
In contrast look at the salaries, balance sheets and dividends of insurance companies. Insurance companies are huge corporations that make profits for their stockholders. Do you think United Healthcare is in business to break even?
And you may want your care administered by someone who went to two year of nursing or PA school, but I don’t. Neither do Canadians who flock here and pay out of pocket for care.
You are living in la-la land.