SCHIP--More Of The Same Old [Stuff]
The house passed an SCHIP bill today—again. As we have all been told, the purpose of the bill is to provide health care to “millions of children.” Yada, yada, yada.
Gag.
The purpose of this bill is to continue along with the broken system that we call health care.
How does giving thirty-five billion dollars to insurance companies cure anyone of anything?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to give thirty-five billion dollars directly for health care?
(It makes more sense, but will just cause a price increase—the subject of a future essay.)
Insurance is WHY health care is so expensive!
People who have good insurance don’t complain a great deal about their bills when they arrive.
It is called transparency.
I was listening to right wing hate radio and the host was agreeing with me that transparency is the culprit in high medical costs.
If people actually had to pay the bills themselves, then market forces would drive the prices down.
You can only charge what the market will bear.
I don’t believe for a second this would lead to a reduction in available services. Quite the contrary. There will just be less money spent on it.
An example: Shortly after my vasectomy twenty years ago, I had a curious lump where I didn’t think one belonged. I went back to see the urologist. His exam took less than ten seconds, and he told me I had nothing to worry about; it would go away shortly.
Relieved, I said, “Thanks doc, that’s worth the forty bucks.”
He said. “I ain’t gonna charge you for that—unless you got insurance.”
I reminded him that I did not, and the visit was free.
I deeply appreciate his generosity and don’t blame him a bit for how he runs his business—it would have taken longer to fill out the paperwork. Nevertheless, it illustrates the point.
The Right Wing says to let market forces decide the cost of health care. I agree.
Let’s get the government out of health insurance business.
Let’s get the government to repeal every single law that mandates health insurance, and watch the price of insurance drop like stone.
Watch the cost of health care follow.
Unless the government can get it right—a single-payer, non-profit system that would actually control the price of health care, the government should stay out of it.
Comments
Quentin,
Your story is much like another I recently heard from a friend of mine. As an attorney with his own practice, he didn't have health insurance but instead paid his health bills out of his own pocket.
Being of a mind that it was best to shop around with different doctors, he found that he was always given a different price and story when they believed he was on insurance, yet it changed whenever he told them he had to pay out of pocket.
I'm not saying doctors are greedy, it's likely more the case that they try to be helpfull to those without insurance, but more often than not, the doctors charge more to insurance companies than they do to the uninsured, even for the same procedure.
This is just a small part of why insurance is so costly. Sadly, I do not believe that government can effectively run our health care system. It just is not in their ability to do it right, and believe me, I wish they could.
The government could make incentives for health savings accounts, however, which would encourage people to take charge of their health and the related costs. We could still offer catastrophic health insurance so that people don't lose their homes if they get a serious illness. Paying out of pocket for less than serious illnesses would encourage people to be more thrifty and ask themselves if it's worth their money and the doctor's time to look at sore throats and runny noses, which you can treat yourself at home.
Posted by: Dane Langston | October 29, 2007 11:32 AM
Quentin, you made some wonderful points - but I feel the high cost of health care may be more directly related to the high cost of malpractice insurance. The cost of that insurance - which has been raised by our sue-happy society - is being passed onto the patients who don't have insurance, because the insurance company isn't going to pay for it. So maybe the answer is getting rid of some lawyers (insert sarcasm font here).
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Indeed, that is another facet of the health care crisis. Maybe we need single-payer malpractice insurance!
Quentin
Posted by: meagan | October 29, 2007 02:41 PM