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Politics : A US National Health Care System?

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To: TimF who wrote (2495)	10/29/2007 7:20:03 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) of 42652

re: Health care systems suffer from Baumol's cost disease: it's a labor-intensive service that doesn't offer huge scope for gains in labor productivity. The number of hours it takes to manufacture a car is consistently falling, but the number of hours it takes to perform doctor's visits is roughly the same as it has always been. As a society gets richer, in order to attract workers, the labor intensive service has to pay competitive wages with the sectors where productivity is rising rapidly; that means that costs for labor-intensive services rise faster than the general price level. Probably one of the problems that we have is how difficult it is to become a doctor. First, the admissions to medical school are strictly regulated. Second, the expense is huge. Third, the regimen is long and hard; 8 years. The AMA is creating it's own shortage, and our own cost based rationing, by making too few doctors. But it keeps the doctors very busy and very well paid... the AMAs membership benefits from the scarcity. Does anyone think you have to be a genius to be a doctor? They are more craftsman than thinkers in my experience.

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