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Politics : A US National Health Care System?
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To: dybdahl who wrote (18582)8/3/2010 12:25:46 PM
From: i-node  Read Replies (1) of 42652
 
>> Healthcare is about limiting costs, no matter how you do it.

This, IMO, is a totally wrong-headed statement.

I have never once been to my physician where I felt limiting costs were a driving force behind my care. That is probably why the United States has higher health care costs than anywhere else, but also may explain the better health care we get here.

In countries where government is primarily responsible for paying for health care, the government makes the decisions and ultimately all governments will have to limit care. It happens here, too, with Medicare and Medicaid.

But where you have private insurance coverage, it is more complicated because like it or not there are market forces at work. The reason employers pay for health insurance here is fundamentally a business one -- they want to be competitive in the jobs market place and they want healthier employees. If the health insurance they provide doesn't deliver adequate coverage, the employer WILL seek different coverage. Markets at work.

Where the US got into trouble was in allowing the government to take over half of our health care financing - Medicare and Medicaid -- in the 1960s. You cannot fork over half of American healthcare to government without disrupting the positive effects of market influences. Now, we have a massive cost shift from the government plans to the private plans and I do think it has caused private plans to lose focus somewhat.

It is not, however, a foregone conclusion that health care is "about" limiting costs. It absolutely can be about providing the best care possible at a reasonable price but you have to get government out of the picture.
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