This week I want to talk about American health care. Another think-tank friend, Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute in California, has written a great book about popular myths of American health care. She writes that, “on the simplest level, the question of how to reform the U.S. health care system boils down to this: How do we control costs without sacrificing quality? And how can we reach coverage that is universal, or at least near universal?”
She goes on to say that, while there are many answers to these questions, “the vast majority of solutions proposed by today’s politicians fall into one of two ideological camps…
“The first camp maintains that only the government can cure our health care woes. The second camp believes that government is actually part of the problem.
Certainly with the Obama crowd moving into power, free market solutions will be at a disadvantage. But if there is one thing we’ve learned from two of the three major attempts at health care reform in modern history – President Truman’s plan in the late 1940s and Hillary Care in the early 1990s – educating the masses actually works at reversing seemingly non-reversible political trends. That is, when people learn more about the proposed reforms, instead of just the hype, they change their opinion from favorable to unfavorable. So know one really knows how all the new Obama reforms will fare – even in his god-like ascendency.
But there are some things that we do know, and Sally Pipes reminds us of at least ten of them.
First, government health care is NOT more efficient than the marketplace. If your goal is strictly efficiency, there is no consumer-driven process more efficient than the free-market. Period.
Second, we’re NOT spending too much on health care – unless, of course, you don’t care about the value of health care you receive. Cost and value must be weighed together.
Third, 46 million Americans are NOT permanently uninsured. Most uninsured people choose to be uninsured. This is especially true for young adults, who comprise most of the uninsured statistical population and who never believe they will ever get sick or suffer a life-threatening illness.
Fourth, prescription drug prices do NOT drive up health care costs. Truthfully, America’s prescription drugs REDUCE medical costs by stopping illnesses before they get serious.
Fifth, importing subsidized drugs from other countries would NOT lower the cost of prescription drugs. A more accurate statement would be that certain brand-name drugs, approved and price-controlled in countries with socialized medicine, are often cheaper. But generic drugs and cutting-edge drugs made in America – in other words, the ones we want to save our lives and pocket-books – are always cheaper.
Sixth, mandating that everyone buy insurance would NOT create universal coverage. There are reasons why we still have drivers without mandated car insurance.
Seventh, government prevention programs do NOT reduce health care costs. Remember President’s Kennedy’s nationwide fitness program? Yeah, neither do I.
Eighth, we DON’T need more government to insure Americans. We are busting the federal budget on health welfare spending. Maybe we should, first, figure out why all eligible Americans don’t sign up for what’s available?
Ninth, health information technology is NOT a silver bullet to reduce medical costs. Unfortunately, you can’t legislate technological innovation.
And, tenth, the big one, government-run health care systems in other countries are NOT better and cheaper than America’s system. And let me make this point simply: the United Nations believes that Costa Rica, Morocco, and Cyprus have better health care than the United States. Fine. Here’s a law I’d support: all UN officials in the United States have to go those countries for their health care.
My guess is that the UN health analysts would change it rankings after that.
