What is Wrong with Health Care Now

Progressive Democrats have wanted to impose nationalized health care on the United States for as long as we can remember. It has always been posed as compassion for sick people; but it looks suspiciously like the human need to control other people in an effort to provide meaning to one’s existence. This drive for control has taken on an unusual urgency because the progressives now control both houses of congress and the presidency and this is viewed as a way to salvage the bankrupt Social Security and Medicare programs.

We have already shown how the public option will allow the government to increase revenue by skimming money from 1/6 of the economy, control costs by dictating reimbursement and access to treatment, and reduce demand by accelerating attrition.

Congressional committees have been introducing legislation written by progressive organizations with no thought to the real problems of our current healthcare system. One can only conclude that there is no real interest in solving problems. Congressional committees used to hold public hearings to solicit testimony on what problems exist and possible solutions; but that is not the case in this congress. This congress seems intent on simply jamming down a progressive agenda to grab private wealth and enhance the power of an elite corps.

Members of Congress and Federal employees will be exempt from the constraints of these programs because, as George Orwell wrote in ‘Animal Farm’, “some are more equal than others”.

Let us assume this is a perfect world and congress will hold public hearings to discover what, if any, problems are endemic to the health care system as currently constituted.
We would testify to the following problems that congress could address to the benefit of everyone.

Access to affordable health insurance is tied to one’s employment. It makes absolutely no sense. The reason for this custom wage and price controls imposed by the Federal Government during World War II. Companies could not pay competitive wages for superior employees; but they were allowed to offer benefits at no cost to employees and deduct those costs from the company’s income. Bonus: government contracts were based on cost plus profit so the higher the costs, the higher the profit.

The prices of health care services are not based on the cost of delivery. Prices are determined by Medicare reimbursement. When Medicare was introduced, it was a small percentage of the total health care industry and reimbursement was based on a percentage of local reasonable and ordinary charges. Over the years, the percentage of reimbursement has declined; so service providers simply raised their fees. The result is private insurers are subsidizing Medicare and Medicaid. These two programs pay nearly half the income received by health care providers. We will explore the negative effects of these policies in a separate blog. The most informative article we have found on this subject was written by Loren Steffy in the Houston Chronicle on Sunday, September 13 and linked here.

Federal and State laws mandating certain services. For example, hospitals must treat anyone who comes to the emergency room. This is by far the most expensive means of health care delivery and most people who go to the emergency room do not pay full price for the services received. The result is the local taxpayer, through the hospital district, pays the cost shortfall for operating the emergency room thereby subsidizing the cost of healthcare for uninsured and indigent clients.

You will notice that the top three problems with the delivery of health care in our country were caused by government. It seems incongruous to expect more government involvement to solve the problems that government involvement has caused.