Get the government out of health care
Sunday, June 21, 2009
I briefly alluded to the health care issue this morning in my post about Steve Jobs, and I want to expound about it now.
Everybody from all points on the political and ideological spectrum agrees that we need health care reform in the United States. We spend more money on health care than almost any other major industrial country does, yet millions of Americans are uninsured and millions more are under insured. And the cost of health care is becoming more and more unaffordable. It is almost impossible for anyone with a preexisting medical condition to get medical coverage if they are not lucky enough to already be insured by their employer. And many employers are being forced to raise premiums and copay's for their employees to such high levels that many employees just can't afford it, so they are canceling and joining the ranks of the uninsured. It's a big mess.
But the solution is not to get the government even more involved in the health care business as Obama and many Democrats want.
The main reason why health care is in such a state of disrepair is not because the government needs to get more involved. Quite the contrary, it's the other way around. Health care is screwed up because the government is too involved already. More government involvement will only make things worse, not better.
The root of the problem started when Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law in 1965. While originally conceived as limited programs, Medicare and Medicaid have now expanded into runaway multibillion dollar boondoggles that can no longer be sustained due to their escalating costs. But what do the Democrats want to do? They want to make things worse by actually getting the federal government more involved in health care by establishing government run national health insurance which would compete with private plans. If you think it's bad now trying to deal with your insurance company, just get the government involved and then you will really be up a tree. Since when has the government ever run anything well? The government will be more inefficient in running their insurance company and in the long run such a strategy would increase health costs overall, not decrease them.
The root of the problem with increasing health care costs is being caused by the fact that both Medicare and Medicade have been decreasing their payments to health care providers, forcing the providers to have to increase charges on everyone else in order to offset their decreasing revenues from the government programs. If you are a young patient, much of your health care expenses go to subsiding other patients who are on the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Until this problem is solved, health care costs will continue to increase at an alarming rate. We need to get the government out of the health care business because that would return the system to some kind of equilibrium and costs might stabilize. This has to be our goal, because the only way we are going to improve health care in this country is to decrease runaway costs.
Everybody from all points on the political and ideological spectrum agrees that we need health care reform in the United States. We spend more money on health care than almost any other major industrial country does, yet millions of Americans are uninsured and millions more are under insured. And the cost of health care is becoming more and more unaffordable. It is almost impossible for anyone with a preexisting medical condition to get medical coverage if they are not lucky enough to already be insured by their employer. And many employers are being forced to raise premiums and copay's for their employees to such high levels that many employees just can't afford it, so they are canceling and joining the ranks of the uninsured. It's a big mess.
But the solution is not to get the government even more involved in the health care business as Obama and many Democrats want.
The main reason why health care is in such a state of disrepair is not because the government needs to get more involved. Quite the contrary, it's the other way around. Health care is screwed up because the government is too involved already. More government involvement will only make things worse, not better.
The root of the problem started when Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law in 1965. While originally conceived as limited programs, Medicare and Medicaid have now expanded into runaway multibillion dollar boondoggles that can no longer be sustained due to their escalating costs. But what do the Democrats want to do? They want to make things worse by actually getting the federal government more involved in health care by establishing government run national health insurance which would compete with private plans. If you think it's bad now trying to deal with your insurance company, just get the government involved and then you will really be up a tree. Since when has the government ever run anything well? The government will be more inefficient in running their insurance company and in the long run such a strategy would increase health costs overall, not decrease them.
The root of the problem with increasing health care costs is being caused by the fact that both Medicare and Medicade have been decreasing their payments to health care providers, forcing the providers to have to increase charges on everyone else in order to offset their decreasing revenues from the government programs. If you are a young patient, much of your health care expenses go to subsiding other patients who are on the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Until this problem is solved, health care costs will continue to increase at an alarming rate. We need to get the government out of the health care business because that would return the system to some kind of equilibrium and costs might stabilize. This has to be our goal, because the only way we are going to improve health care in this country is to decrease runaway costs.
3 Comments:
sorry , "grave mistake".
commented by 
Phototronica, June 21, 2009 at 6:28 PM
Phototronica, June 21, 2009 at 6:28 PM
hello,
your, about me, section on your blogger profile about electing obama as a "grace mistake", is simply out of touch.
thank you very much.
your, about me, section on your blogger profile about electing obama as a "grace mistake", is simply out of touch.
thank you very much.
Very nice post. I agree with you in some respects. If the government is too involved it would be like the post office or state workers who just have to show up to work for a few hours a week and get the best medical benefits in the country. But the government needs to be there on some level to monitor that things are run the right way.
Also, providers like doctors need to cut their fees and costs. Do you think most American doctors become doctors to save lives? Hell no, it's all about the money. Other countries who have much better successful health coverage for their citizens also have providers and doctors who are for good health and saving lives, not getting wealthy over night like American doctors.
Also, providers like doctors need to cut their fees and costs. Do you think most American doctors become doctors to save lives? Hell no, it's all about the money. Other countries who have much better successful health coverage for their citizens also have providers and doctors who are for good health and saving lives, not getting wealthy over night like American doctors.
