I tried to talk sense recently to someone whose mind has been poisoned by those who hate America. As I pointed out his errors in another subject, he changed the topic to health care.
This is a good time for that discussion as Obama wants to “socialize” medicine. However it has got to be an honest discussion. Thanks to foreign-owned media, an honest discussion is yet to be found.
An honest discussion of health care would differentiate between cost and price.
The “cost” of health care is but a miniscule fraction of the “price.”
Go into a drug store a buy box of syringes. It’s fair to say that would be your “cost” for the syringes. A hospital will charge you twenty to thirty times as much.
Why?
Any discussion of health care needs to ask: are we going to subsidize profits?
Are we going to subsidize greed?
Before someone asks if I equate profits and greed, I will say that in my view it is not Christian to profit off the pain and suffering of others. However, in practical terms, what is wrong with a straight 15%?
My favorite example of medical greed is Levamisole.
Levamisole is a drug for intestinal worms. It’s takes a penny a produce a dose. That is, to get one dose to the consumer costs one cent. The price used to be about six cents a dose. Years ago, some curious individual wondered if it might work on colon cancer. After some taxpayer-funded research, the maker discovered it did. It still takes a penny to produce, but now the price is around six dollars per dose. Or 600 times the cost.
So, when we talk about paying for health care, we argue over who should pay the six bucks. Shouldn’t we be talking about one penny instead?
A friend of mine needed a breast biopsy a few years ago. The price was either 400, 800, 1700, or 3800 dollars depending on who was paying for it. The cost was obviously less.
We are constantly hammered on the evils of “socialized” medicine. Indeed, Canada and the UK tax everybody to cover the prices—not the costs. This blatant transference of wealth is where the evil lies. I can’t help but notice that the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world are all located in “socialized” countries.
It stands to reason that we could help 600 times as many people or we could subsidize the profit of one company.
For the record: I am happy to be taxed to help people that suffer. I am not happy to be taxed to pay for private jets.
It has been oft-quoted that up to one-third the costs of health care go to insurance and administration. An honest overhaul of Health Care will cut costs immediately by one-third—that’s obvious. Take out the Godless profits and we could cut the costs by another third--easy.
Whatever happens, I “Hope” we can keep the discussion honest.