I'll paste here 2 of my posts from another thread. First is about the reform; the second is about the concern that socializing healthcare may stifle innovation:
The big problem is supposed to be costs - and the number of uninsureds? Maybe the answer is in focusing on the problem - rather than having bureaucrats take over everything. Why not open free clinics for those who can't afford insurance, or simply don't want to bother. Those clinics can be simple, with no frills - yes, possibly with long waits... staffed - at least in part - by doctors who are still in training (supervised, of course, by experienced clinicians). The majority of Americans are happy with the existing system - so, tweak it, improve it - don't dump it.
Deregulate as much as possible, shut down useless agencies such as JCAH, pass tort reform which would compensate malpractice victims in most cases through arbitration... introduce some sort of a national catastrophic coverage. Try to minimize controls, rather than introduce thousands of new ones. Before you know, you'll be talking about a realistic, positive reform which would be built on American traditions. That would be far better than handing over 17% of GDP to (for the most part pain in the butt) bureaucrats... and politicians. There is no reason to expect that they wouldn't mess it up.
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Healthcare must have at least a significant element of free-market-like self-adjustment. When things get covered - or "uncovered" - according to decisions made by groups of bureaucrats, we better pray that those people sitting on committees and voting know what the in the world they are doing. Otherwise, they'll end up covering unnecessary items, and refuse funding for things which really may make a difference.
The problem is that often it is not possible to know in advance what will prove valuable. This means that even assuming that our future healthcare functionaries will not be subject to personal hangups and corrupting influences, the odds are that they will still mess up.
If years ago chip companies would "cover" certain directions of research and production, and not others -- today, I would not have my I-Phone and my laptop. If the whole planet will decide to go socialist, we're all in big trouble. Fortunately, some nations who've been there, like China, are moving in the opposite direction. |
