Posted on 10/16/2006 6:08:28 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Everyone complains about the rising cost of healthcare. And now is the season when politicians and pundits propose solutions. Unfortunately, too many of these proposals spring from the wrongheaded notion that healthcare is, as a recent New York Times letter-writer asserted, "a human right and a universal entitlement."
Sounds noble. But not everything that is highly desirable is a right. Most rights simply oblige us to respect one another's freedoms; they do not oblige us to pay for others to exercise these freedoms. Respecting rights such as freedom of speech and of worship does not impose huge demands upon taxpayers.
Healthcare, although highly desirable, differs fundamentally from these rights. Because providing healthcare takes scarce resources, offering it free at the point of delivery would raise its cost and reduce its availability.
To see why, imagine if government tried to supply food as a universally available "right."
To satisfy this right, government would raise taxes to meet all anticipated food needs. Store shelves across the land would then be stocked. Citizens would have the right to enter these storehouses to get "free" food.
Does anyone believe that such a system would effectively supply food? It's clear that with free access to food, too many people would take too much food, leaving many others with no food at all. Government would soon realize that food storehouses
~snip~
The solution is less, not more, government involvement in healthcare. Market forces have consistently lowered the cost and improved the quality and accessibility of food - which is at least as important to human survival as is healthcare. There's no reason markets can't do the same for healthcare.
It's ironic but true: Only by abandoning attempts to provide healthcare as a "right" that's paid for largely by others will we enjoy surer access to it.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
What we need is universal insurance of about 80% of health care costs, with a 20% or so co-pay, and 100% co-pay for vanity surgery. The co-pay is substantial enough to deter wasteful use. And the really poor who cannot afford the 20% can be covered by Medicaid.
Very good article....thank you for the post
Shoudn't you have to contribute to society to expect some kind of reward?
Cable costs keep rising, as do education costs. Why is this? Many reasons, one of which costs for ALL kinds of services keep increasing faster than the fake CPI numbers - it is called inflation. We can outsource many things (mfg) and those costs continue to fall. This is a fake crisis. The root is govt spending of all kinds.
With just a dash of Teddy Rooseveltian "trust busting" and a healthy helping of tort reform (e.g. allow patients to sign away their right to sue) you'd be surprised how quickly and far health care costs would fall.
True, but this won't get anyone elected.
Don't get sick....
REID MUST RESIGN!!!!!!
The second problem is that payment is divorced from service. Thirty percent of health care is government funded--Medicare, Medicaid, VAH and Native American Services. About 61% of people obtain health care at work and pay only a fraction of the coast's 17% on average for individuals and 27% for families. Finally, there is about 10% or less of strictly private pays.
Freed from normal, competitive restraints of the marketplace demand explodes. The result is Draconian efforts of third party payers and the government to control costs. Especially government health care since it is popular to conceive it but unpopular to tax for its maintenance.
While one could argue for some type of "stop loss" coverage sponsored by the government, the present efforts are bankrupting employers who can no longer fund the escalating costs and the electorate is rebelling against paying the taxes for "government" plans.
The only thing growing as fast or faster than health care is college and postgraduate education. Again a monopoly and the average person divorced from full payment.
You know, when I was a recent college graduate, I lived in a kind of bubble. All my friends were smart and the people that provided the services were smart and I wondered where all the stupid people were. Then I went by the university hospital. The stupid peolple were there because they did things that hurt themselves. Is making healthcare a "Right" going to make them any smarter?
Rhetorical? LOL
Someone (P.J. O'Rourke?) remarked "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's free".
Government is already busy doing what it does badly. Would you assign health care management to the CIA or FEMA? Build more medical schools!
Great article. Now apply those very same statements to Social Security. It isn't a right, it is a tax they have conned America into thinking is their own personal retirement.
Apply those standards to public schools too. If your parents cannot afford an education, you should not expect to have one provided to you.
Apply it to sewerage. If you and the neighbors cannot afford a sewerage system, you shouldn't have it.
Apply it to airports. No government subsidies for them! The WHOLE cost of flying should be borne by passengers.
Apply it to the roads.
Government subsidies have the effect of making demand outstrip supply, raising costs, making a commodity even less affordable. This increases the number of people who cannot afford the commodity without the government subsidy. This encourages the government to make things even worse.
Thus sanctimony impoverishes.
What is the magic about your percentages? Upon what research do you rely to establish such rates as reasonable, accurate and sustainable?
Boxcar these people out of here and watch the price of health care drop substantially. And emergency rooms reopen for the rest of us. This is the nature of our health care costs. Don't ever doubt me on this particular point!! I know.
I totally agree. In addition to government mandates on healthcare that increase healthcare costs, when government pumps money into healthcare, it effectively becomes the highest bidder, and that drives the price still higher.
The only kind of healthcare I can think of that is anywhere close to being market driven is lasik eye surgery. Since it's been done that way, the quality has improved and the prices have fallen. If that can be done with eye surgery, there's no reason it can't be done with knee surgery, or heart surgery, or any other medical procedure.
Get the government out of healthcare. People should be paying out of pocket for routine and general care. They can easily afford catastrophic insurance if they want to.
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