The Economics of Health Care
February 17th, 2007 § 1 Comment
I’ve had to restrain myself from writing about this for the last couple months. The reason why is I hadn’t yet gotten close to a solution to the health care “problem.” I started my quest for the perfect health care system by starting a thread on Forumosa.com “Why Do You Think Universal Health Care Is/Isn’t A Good Idea?” I admit that I started the thread with my mind made up already: Universal health care is not economically sound, thus I didn’t think it was a sound solution.
Here’s a clip from my first post:
Finding a healthy model for health care would greatly improve the quality of life for all parties in a society (the rich, the poor, the fat and the skinny.) Is a Universal Health Care System the one? Why or why not?
And here’s excerpt from closer to the last page (8th at the time of posting this):
Some people will get cancer and will have have their leg cut off (because that’s what they can afford.) Others will get cancer and will be able to get the best treatment by the finest doctors on the planet (because that’s what they can afford.) Some might not be able to afford to battle it very long, those people should be able to approach organizations that our out to help individuals like this, I don’t think the government should be one of those.
It appears that I’m being ruthless, but I’m not. I’m mearly telling it the way I think it is. Anyhow, my stance is still of one that doesn’t agree with the idea of “Universal” health care.
I want a system that holds people accountable for the things they do that affect their health. Anyhow, I wanted to share an article I came across written by an economist that lays out a health care plan for the US the sounds pretty fuckin’ sweet to me.
The Five Big Questions about Health Care – By Arnold Kling
American health care reformers face five key questions.
- What will we do about the large projected deficit in Medicare?
- What can we do to reduce government subsidies for extravagant use of medical procedures with high costs and low benefits?
- What should we do about the health care needs of the very poor?
- What should we do about the health care needs of the very sick?
- What should we do about a scenario in which both income inequality and the share of average income devoted to health care rise sharply?
Both the left and the right have offered answers to these five questions that are at best incomplete. In this essay, I want to try to deal with all five of them.
If you’re interested in the topic, I think you’ll like the article.
I think I’m inclined to agree with you. I think everyone should have some co-pays. They shouldn’t be so high as to bankrupt a person, but enough to prevent frivolous use. I also think there should be some incentives to people who pursue health life choices–not smoking, NOT DRINKING TOO MUCH, controling obesity, etc. There is a certain resentment working people without insurance have when they see the very poor getting better medical care and perhaps abusing it while they have no medical care and have to pay for it. Also, our current system encourages employers like Walmart to contribute nothing to medical care and to steer their employees to state healthcare programs for the working poor. The government is subsidizing Walmart.