Healthcare Nationalized—what has caused the rising costs of healthcare?
“‘Healthcare Reform’: Of course, what is about to be considered in the House is NOT reform. It is a proposal for the federal government to TAKE CONTROL of healthcare in this nation—either immediately or ultimately.”
If healthcare costs are too high and growing, it seems logical and reasonable to determine first the causes of those rising costs and then to attack those causes if one really wants to solve the problem. Of course, the first problem is coming to an agreement that costs are too high. By definition, “too high” is a subjective concept. For our purposes though, we will operation on the premise that costs are too high. If that is the case, why are they too high?
I would submit that there are at least five substantial reasons (and certainly others would argue more and possibly different ones). Of course, a book could be written about each one and people would still not agree. Realizing the extreme limitations involved, I would include the following five.
1) Fraud
Unfortunately, there are always some people who are intent on cheating any system. I also believe, generally, people are more likely to commit fraud against the government than against a private company. First, this is true because governments have much deeper pockets. And second, in general, because governments are more lax in trying to prevent fraud. Fraud does not decrease the government’s bottom line because the government does not have a bottom line. The government will not go out of business if fraud siphons too much money from the system.
2) Technological costs
Great technological advances in medical areas are expensive. Research and development is costly and must be recouped. As demand for the technology increases, costs should go down but, in a free market economy, can not go below the actual costs of development and application of the technology. Based upon the purpose and need of the technology, some marvelous technologies will have a limited demand because of the infrequency of the need for that technology.
3) Medical malpractice costs
There is little doubt that lawsuits brought against the medical profession increase the costs of healthcare. Malpractice insurance costs thousands of dollars a year even if a practitioner has never been sued. Also, it is claimed that every doctor has practiced defensive medicine ordering more and more tests to protect himself against a possible malpractice suit. The practice of “better safe than sorry” has been taken to extreme lengths to try to avoid a multimillion dollar or even billion plus dollar verdict.
4) Government interference
As I’ve said before, the federal government requires emergency rooms to treat a patient regardless. Unfortunately, the federal government doe not reimburse that hospital for the full cost of this required treatment. Hospitals are therefore forced to pass those costs onto the paying consumer. Both State governments and the federal government mandate coverage for individuals under insurance policies that are costly for the insurance company and therefore end up being covered by increased costs for all those covered by insurance. After years of adding more coverage and more individuals to both Medicaid and Medicare, the federal government, in an effort to cut costs, has itself determined what the cost is for doctors for the procedures covered by the program. When the prescribed costs do not cover the actual costs incurred by the doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers, the only way they have to recoup those costs is to increase prices for everyone else. At the present time, government rules and regulations have been a major reason, if not the major reason, for the increasing costs within the system.
5) Personal bad practices
It seems that many people within the nation have decided that self indulgence is more important than their own health or the health of their loved ones. Smoking, drug and other addictions, obesity, risky behaviors, and a growing list of other detrimental behaviors have increased the cost of healthcare as people, on one hand, seem intent on destroying their bodies while demanding increased healthcare to alleviate the consequences of their own bad practices.
As I wrote in the beginning when first discussing this issue, there are only three possibilities in relation to who benefits from nationalized healthcare—some will benefit, some will break even, and some will lose. The most healthy are the ones who are most likely to lose while the ones who have bad health behaviors are the ones most likely to win. We will be rewarding bad practices and punishing good practices. Does that make sense to you?
“‘Healthcare Reform’: Of course, what is about to be considered in the House is NOT reform. It is a proposal for the federal government to TAKE CONTROL of healthcare in this nation—either immediately or ultimately.”
If healthcare costs are too high and growing, it seems logical and reasonable to determine first the causes of those rising costs and then to attack those causes if one really wants to solve the problem. Of course, the first problem is coming to an agreement that costs are too high. By definition, “too high” is a subjective concept. For our purposes though, we will operation on the premise that costs are too high. If that is the case, why are they too high?
I would submit that there are at least five substantial reasons (and certainly others would argue more and possibly different ones). Of course, a book could be written about each one and people would still not agree. Realizing the extreme limitations involved, I would include the following five.
1) Fraud
Unfortunately, there are always some people who are intent on cheating any system. I also believe, generally, people are more likely to commit fraud against the government than against a private company. First, this is true because governments have much deeper pockets. And second, in general, because governments are more lax in trying to prevent fraud. Fraud does not decrease the government’s bottom line because the government does not have a bottom line. The government will not go out of business if fraud siphons too much money from the system.
2) Technological costs
Great technological advances in medical areas are expensive. Research and development is costly and must be recouped. As demand for the technology increases, costs should go down but, in a free market economy, can not go below the actual costs of development and application of the technology. Based upon the purpose and need of the technology, some marvelous technologies will have a limited demand because of the infrequency of the need for that technology.
3) Medical malpractice costs
There is little doubt that lawsuits brought against the medical profession increase the costs of healthcare. Malpractice insurance costs thousands of dollars a year even if a practitioner has never been sued. Also, it is claimed that every doctor has practiced defensive medicine ordering more and more tests to protect himself against a possible malpractice suit. The practice of “better safe than sorry” has been taken to extreme lengths to try to avoid a multimillion dollar or even billion plus dollar verdict.
4) Government interference
As I’ve said before, the federal government requires emergency rooms to treat a patient regardless. Unfortunately, the federal government doe not reimburse that hospital for the full cost of this required treatment. Hospitals are therefore forced to pass those costs onto the paying consumer. Both State governments and the federal government mandate coverage for individuals under insurance policies that are costly for the insurance company and therefore end up being covered by increased costs for all those covered by insurance. After years of adding more coverage and more individuals to both Medicaid and Medicare, the federal government, in an effort to cut costs, has itself determined what the cost is for doctors for the procedures covered by the program. When the prescribed costs do not cover the actual costs incurred by the doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers, the only way they have to recoup those costs is to increase prices for everyone else. At the present time, government rules and regulations have been a major reason, if not the major reason, for the increasing costs within the system.
5) Personal bad practices
It seems that many people within the nation have decided that self indulgence is more important than their own health or the health of their loved ones. Smoking, drug and other addictions, obesity, risky behaviors, and a growing list of other detrimental behaviors have increased the cost of healthcare as people, on one hand, seem intent on destroying their bodies while demanding increased healthcare to alleviate the consequences of their own bad practices.
As I wrote in the beginning when first discussing this issue, there are only three possibilities in relation to who benefits from nationalized healthcare—some will benefit, some will break even, and some will lose. The most healthy are the ones who are most likely to lose while the ones who have bad health behaviors are the ones most likely to win. We will be rewarding bad practices and punishing good practices. Does that make sense to you?
posted by Christian Gunslinger at 5:15 AM
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