In the President's big speech, I heard nothing that would really address health care costs. Our government has proven unable to contain costs with Medicare or Medicaid. Health systems in Massachusetts, Maine, and Washington, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan have all failed to contain health care costs.
But there is one place where the US government has been able to control medical expenditure: the Indian Health Service.
Our government provides single-payer health care for many Native American tribes, and they have simple plan for cost controls: Don't get sick after June.
Quite simply, the government allocates a certain amount of money, and when it's gone, it's gone. After that, if you're not "dying or about to lose a limb," you're not going to get much care.
Ok, this isn't really a scheme for cost control. It is, however, a good example of what can happen when goverment is too involved in your health care.
Is there no way to tackle the rising cost of health care?
Tomorrow.
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4 comments:
I have a few thoughts, but none of them would be popular, and likely not practical either.
Let's here 'em. What's practical about how it's working now?
I thought the same thing about the President's speech. Everything he mentioned would only serve to increase the cost of health care (e.g., additional insurance regulations, mandated coverages, insurance company fines). It's very interesting, people tend to forget that corporations ultimately pass on all costs to customers. It's just part of the price you pay for a good or service.
Eventually they won't be able to pass the costs on. Even from the beginning there will be lots of restrictions.
I still think the point of this whole exercise is to put the insurance companies out of business so they can push us into single-payer -- which, for many Dems, seems to be an intrinsic good that must be reached.
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