Yes, twice as much. We very simply cannot afford it especially facing the demographic blip. Health care is a huge percentage of our GDP and makes us economically uncompetitive in the world markets... and it's getting worse.
I understand the problem, and I agree that it interferes with our global competitiveness. I just don't believe the solution is to cut the quality of health care in the United States.
The problem, John, is that you cannot just start cutting the amount paid for medical care without it having far-reaching impact on the quality of care we receive.
Your solution, I suppose, would be to have government administer the program which purportedly would save money. I do not believe this, and history is on my side -- there are few, if any, efficiently run government programs, and nobody would argue that Medicare and/or state Medicaids are as efficiently run as commercial insurance companies. Without commercial insurance to prop up these programs (in more ways than just one), you simply couldn't have the quality of health care we now have.
I totally agree that cost cutting can be done -- but it has to come in other ways. Capping malpractice awards ON A FEDERAL LEVEL -- that's a start. There still has to be some way for compensating those who are injured, but the compensation needs to be reasonable so you don't have law firms running nationwide ads trying to dredge up clients to sue the doctors, hospitals, manufacturers, and suppliers everytime some medical problem is announced.
We've discussed the problem with drug pricing, but that one is much more difficult to deal with, and the ultimate resolution is probably going to have to come in the form of tax policy. If a drug company can sell a drug overseas for any price above its variable manufacturing costs, from a microeconomic point of view it has to be allowed to do so, otherwise, the firm is taking the hit, which is ultimately going to stifle the development of new pharmaceuticals. OTOH, there is an apparent unfairness in requiring the USA to take the hit on expensive new drugs. There must be some kind of equitable arrangement introduced into this situation.
What is important, IMO, is that the problems be addressed on an individual basis rather than some kind of socialized medicine approach. There is zero doubt about it -- socialized medicine will reduce the quality of the health care we receive in the United States. If you want insurance portability or coverage for those who don't have it, fine, let's find a way to do it. But most of America doesn't want the government in charge of its health care. We've all dealt with the post office, the IRS, SSA, and every other huge government agency, and they simply DO NOT WORK. |
