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Politics : SI Member Vote 2004/SubjectMarks Only For Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cage Rattler who wrote (753)	9/1/2004 11:06:11 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 812

Then I suggest we remove the government-imposed reimbursement restrictions placed on the medical profession and let medical costs float in a competitive environment. Might not be a bad idea. To an extent when the government pays it is acting as the customer and the customer should be able to decide how much its going to pay, but in many ways the government isn't the customer and doesn't act like a customer. The fact that someone other then the customer is paying can artificially drive costs down (with things like rate caps that the customer might prefer to ignore to get better service) but it also artificially drives costs up by giving the patient/customer less incentive to try and reduce costs. Overall I think it makes medical care more expensive, in fact I think it is one of the major reasons (along with things like malpractice costs, ageing population, and a wealthier country being able to afford to spend more on health care which it considers a high priority) for increasing health care costs. Tim