In today’s society, there are calls for government control of most anything. Hamburger meat too fatty? Call the FDA. Don’t like that your neighbor works on their car on their driveway? Call Zoning. Government is working on running a car company, and is already heavy-handed into the financial industry, telling CEOs what kind of salary they’re allowed to have (meanwhile, Congress’ salary goes up without having to vote on it).
There are calls, as well, for the government to run healthcare. And we may get it. And it may end up being deserved. Here’s my thinking..
Capitalism works when there is competition. In the medical community, there isn’t much of that. Sure, you can pick Doctor A or Doctor B, but only if your insurance allows it. Pick Doctor B instead of Doctor A and you’ll have to pay 80% of costs instead of 30% of costs. That really removes the choice. The AMA heavily limits competition. You can’t go to Ed’s Discount Clinic to have your medical work done, unless Ed is fully ‘certified’ by the AMA.
Here’s why this gets sticky:
Every year, what we get FROM insurance goes down, but what we pay continues to go up. When we leave one company and start somewhere else, our insurance doesn’t follow us. If we move across state lines, our insurance doesn’t follow us. Competition is limited by Government Mandate and by such regulatory groups as the AMA.
How does this actually affect us apart from our pocketbook?
My mother has been in quite a bit of pain for well over a month or two. For the last few weeks, she’s not been able to go to work. She’s been ‘in line’ waiting for the hospital to allow her to come in to get an epidural shot. My father got a few of these shots years ago. You’d go in, bend over a table, a couple quick shots of local then the epidural shot. In and out in 20 minutes.
So, she shows up today, leaving at 6:30am (because that’s when it is convenient for the hospital, which is what’s important after all…. the hospital…. ), to find out, when she gets there, that the hospital requires $2,000 up front, plus her insurance is going to have her pay 40% of whatever remaining costs their are. Plus, this is no longer a 20 minute procedure. It lasts a few hours and involves being admitted. Not once, but 3 times over the next few weeks. At $2,000 per visit, plus 40% of remaining costs.
There are no other options, apart from just live in pain. There is no competition. There is no free market.
The medical system here is about go to through a radical change. Government will take control and regulate what can be done, and when, and for what price. And the Government (i.e, we the taxpayer) will foot the bill. That will eliminate private insurance and will dissolve the purpose for the AMA (To make sure the PATIENT is safe)
Perhaps they deserve it, for they both have eliminated free market and competition. They both have created a system where their profits trump the customer’s needs. The problem is, it is we, the taxpaying patient that will suffer.
