Once again it has become politically vogue to be for universal health care. The strategy must be that if you offer something free to everyone, then everyone will vote for you. Universal health care is far from free… very far.
We are provided anecdote after anecdote as to why our health care system is a colossal failure. That is simply not the case. Americans, ALL Americans, continue to enjoy the single most effective health care system in the world. Either way you spin it, universal health care means increasing the size of government and inviting the government to insert itself into the most personal aspects of each of our lives, our personal health. I suggest that the health care problem is a finite problem. I suggest a more proportional response. Let’s craft an appropriate solution that considers goals and objectives. Let’s employ modern strategies that consider costs as well as incentives - intended and unintended.
We know there is a correlation between early detection and subsequent health care costs. It’s simple – the earlier the detection, the less expensive, and more successful, the treatment. In short, we get more for less. Given that our medical records are still kept on paper, there is significant latency inherent in the system, a disruption. If this paper delay could be removed by digitizing our health care records, we could significantly reduce the cost of health care while significantly increasing the effectiveness of treatment. We could get more for less.
There’s more that we can do to improve our health care system that is not being discussed, and without applying the massive government machinery that a universal system would require. The largest component of health care costs today has nothing to do with healing or treating patients. It is medical malpractice insurance. Ask your General Practitioner. Ask your Ob/Gyn. Heck, ask your dentist. Pass tort reform and we can begin lowering the cost.
Every economic book will tell you that free insurance will drive bad behavior. As an example, people with car insurance tend to drive more recklessly. Why? Because they seem to think that accidents don't cost money, “the insurance company will cover it.” Well, driving recklessly DOES cost money, as does living an unhealthy lifestyle. Our body mass index is off the charts, occurrences of diabetes are too high, there is an epidemic of both adult and childhood obesity, society seems to have a dependence on anti depressants and non-essential prescriptions. Imagine how a sense of free health care will burden the system with unimaginable costs. To quote P.J. O’Rourke, if you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it’s free.
We have the technology and the talent to design a state of the art, intelligent health care system that would significantly lower the cost and provide intelligent and precise health care. A system in which the medicine is equal to the illness. We don’t recommend open-heart surgery for a broken toe. Why provide a government supplied, universal solution to a finite problem? Let’s address the issues behind the costs. Rein in the medical malpractice industry and develop interoperability between medical IT systems. These simple reforms will improve what is already the world's best health care system.
Our Crazy Health-Insurance System
By John Stossel
Townhall.com
Almost daily, we're bombarded with apocalyptic warnings about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance. Sen. Hillary Clinton wants to require everyone to have it, big companies to pay for it and government to buy it for the poor.
That is a move in the wrong direction.
America's health-care problem is not that some people lack insurance -- it's that 250 million Americans do have it.
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