How
many people do you know who think their congressman has the answer to providing
health care in America? Or, their Senator?
George W. Bush? Bill
Clinton? Hillary Clinton? Or, for that matter, any
politician? Do they really have
the answers?
If
they can’t do it, then how about the politicians in Canada, or Great Britain? Have they solved the problem in their
societies? Some people believe they
have. However, in England, where the
private practice of medicine was outlawed when socialized medicine was first
established there, they were eventually forced to reverse their policy and
permit the public to go outside the government’s system to obtain health care
from private physicians.
In Canada today, the
story is much the same. Many Canadians
come to the U.S. for emergent needs, such as bypass surgery, because the
waiting time in Canada is interminable, often many months before their citizens
can get life-saving treatment when they need it.
State-Run Health Care
All state-run health
care systems have one thing in common: rationing. Rationing of resources. The cause is a devilishly simple principle
that’s present in all nationalized health care programs. That is, it’s free, or so low cost that it’s
almost free. Basic economics clearly
demonstrates that whenever something is free, the demand quickly becomes
unlimited. The lower
the price, the greater the demand.
Give something away and you can “sell” everything you have and more.
However, the flip
side of unlimited demand is a shortage of supply. And, not having enough doctors, nurses, or expensive
equipment such as that used for CAT Scans and MRIs, eventually leads to
rationing. Without enough health care to
go around, rationing becomes a necessity.
That has been the failing with nationalized health care in England,
Canada, Germany, Japan, the former USSR, everywhere it
has been tried.
So,
if there are no politicians who really know what should be done to solve our health
care problems, why do we keep expecting them to come up with the answers?
Just
exactly what are the problems? Too many uninsured? Too high cost? Poor quality? Lack of availability?
All of the above? Do you know or think you know?
What
have been the government’s, or politicians’, solutions
to date?
Health Care Policy
National
health care (socialized medicine) in one form or another is the primary health
care policy that is gradually being adopted in America. And it is slowly but surely lowering the
quality of the health care we are getting.
Talk to any doctor you trust and see if they don’t agree. They will tell you that they are working much
longer hours for far less money, that many physicians
are retiring early or converting to “concierge” practices because they are fed
up with the government and insurance company bureaucrats telling them how to
practice medicine. Consequently, there
is a growing shortage of doctors and nurses.
But, you may say, we don’t have socialized
medicine in America! Perhaps
not yet, but we’ve been moving in that direction for some time, and we seem to
be going farther down that path as the years progress. It’s a slippery slope. For example, consider Medicare.
But, Medicare is not socialized medicine,
you may insist.
Unfortunately, it is, or is headed that
way. Why? For one thing, it’s a system that’s based on
price controls.
Price Controls
Price
controls have never worked, ever, in any society at any time in history. They were tried as early as 301 A.D. by a
Roman emperor, Diocletian (243-316 A.D.) who implemented price controls under
penalty of death. But even that didn’t
work, and it hasn’t worked since. What
price controls do is cause shortages, increased costs and disrupted markets.
Look at what has happened to the Medicare
program since 1984, the year the government changed its method of paying for hospital
services from “cost-plus” to a system called diagnostic related groupings. DRGs are a method of classifying illnesses
and assigning a comparative value and a specific authorized payment to
each. At that point, many hospitals
began to lose money because the government started dictating the prices that
are paid for inpatient care.
As much as 70% of many hospitals’ patients are
seniors, whose bills are paid by Medicare.
The federal Health Care Financing Administration determines, in its sole
discretion, the prices that can be charged for seniors’ inpatient hospital
care, and then pays only 80% of those amounts.
The differences between a hospital’s standard fees for service and the
amounts that Medicare pays must be written off.
They cannot be collected from the patient. That’s price control.
Furthermore, because Medicare payments are
determined solely by the government, annual cost of living increases are
limited, generally to between 1-1/2% and 2-1/2%, in spite of the fact that
hospital costs have been rising for years at an annual rate of anywhere from 6%
to 14%.
Another little known fact about Medicare is
that seniors are prevented from seeking care outside the Medicare system, even
if they are willing to pay the bill themselves.
Any doctor who accepts payment directly from a senior who is covered by
Medicare is automatically disqualified from providing care to all Medicare patients
for a period of two years. This is
especially important in situations where a patient wants a second opinion and
would like to see another doctor. That
type of regulation is certainly an element of socialized medicine.
Many
Hospitals Lose Money
Between
health insurance contracts called health maintenance organizations, or HMOs,
and Medicare’s limits on what hospitals can charge, hospitals generally collect
only about 50% of their total billings.
The rest is written off. The
result of all this is predictable: many of them are losing money. About one-third of all hospitals in
California are currently operating at a loss.
With a national health care plan, at some point, many hospitals would
either be closed or services curtailed.
That’s been the pattern in every country that has nationalized its
health care. Nonetheless, that seems to
be where we are headed, in spite of compelling evidence that it doesn’t
work.
Like the proverbial frog being cooked in a pot
of cold water, Americans are gradually becoming aware that the quality of their
health care is declining, even as costs continue to rise. It just hasn’t sunk in yet. When it does, they will undoubtedly be led to
believe that the government has the answers and will demand more government control,
regulation and oversight. And our
politicians will be only too willing to oblige.
Nationalized Health Care
Nationalized
health care in America is gradually overtaking the free market, and we are all
being slowly cooked in the pot of government intervention. So, don’t be surprised at the type of health
care program we get as time progresses.
Whatever your own conclusions, remember one thing: that our politicians
won’t have to rely on whatever health care plan they establish for everyone
else. As usual, they will have their
own, superior plan. And, it will not be
a part of the nationalized health care system that the rest of us will be
required to use. If you doubt that
assertion, just look at the health care plan that our federal legislators and
government employees have now.
However,
notwithstanding the fact that I’m one of those seniors who has Medicare health
insurance coverage, that’s just my opinion.
© 2007 Harris R. Sherline, All Rights
Reserved