Sunday, January 21, 2007
why is capitalist medicine so expensive
Why is medicine so expensive in a capitalist environment? What happened to the theory of free markets creating competitive pricing? What changed to give the health care barons the power of life and death over us?
Historically doctors didn't expect to get rich. Doctors were devoted to God, mankind, and doing good works. Throughout most of history doctors could only help birth a baby or lessen the pain of the dying. They didn't have the tools or knowledge to do more. The industrial revolution changed medicine giving doctors God-like powers over us and also changed the mentality of those seeking health care as a profession. Instead of considering whether to be a minister or a doctor, now only those that can breeze through organic chemistry and have the money for medical school can be doctors. Is your doctor a healer or a health care business person just eager for the prestige, title, and the big bucks? Equality of care would have saved many times the number of lives saved by new technologies and treatments.
Corporations are finding that health insurance costs too high and so will insist that their chattel in congress create single payer health care or they will discontinue their participation.
America doesn't have the world's best health care system, just the most expensive. For those of you who worry about your health and wealth, that's bad news. The numbers are ugly. The United States spends 15.5 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, about $1.7 trillion a year. No other country comes close. Yet for all that money - equal to the entire economic output of France - 45 million Americans go without health insurance. France on a per-capita basis spends about half what we do on health care insures everyone. In fact, under France's universal health system, patients can visit doctors, even specialists, virtually any time they wish.
We're No. 22 among industrialized nations in life expectancy (77 years). Japan is No. 1 at 81 years. We're No. 25 in infant mortality rate (6.8 infant deaths per 1,000 births). Sweden leads with only 3.5 deaths per 1,000. In a study conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 41 percent of uninsured adults said they were unable to see a doctor when they needed to during the previous year and 56 percent did not have a personal doctor or other health care provider. Chronically ill uninsured adults were more than four times more likely to go without medical care or prescription drugs than chronically ill insured adults. Nevertheless, more than one in five uninsured adults with chronic conditions report spending at least $2,000 out of pocket in a year for medical care. The average visit to an ER now costs over $1,000, which is a high price to pay for an asthma attack or an infant's fever.
General Motors, the nation's largest buyer of health plans lost $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2005, its largest quarterly loss in more than a decade. The company cited the cost of providing health coverage for its workers and retirees as a main culprit. The first element of the Bush administration's response to America's health care crisis has been to cut funding for coverage and offer half-baked privatization plans like Health Savings Accounts that worsen existing problems and would help only 0.3 percent of uninsured adults. In his latest “victory” bush successfully lobbied Congress to cut federal funding for Medicaid, the nation's largest insurance program for the poor. Medicaid was already facing increased costs driven by “enrollment growth due to the economic downturn” during bush's first term. In addition, Congress recently passed the White House-backed Bankruptcy Bill, which will make it harder for uninsured Americans to recover from crippling debt brought on by medical problems.
The second part of the Bush administration's response appears to involve pretending health care problems don't exist saying “many of the uninsured may remain uninsured as a matter of choice.” Others, the report offered, are probably covered but do not report it, maybe because the “survey questions are confusing.” A more recent report funded by the Department of Health and Human Services set out to prove the number of uninsured is overstated.
Historically doctors didn't expect to get rich. Doctors were devoted to God, mankind, and doing good works. Throughout most of history doctors could only help birth a baby or lessen the pain of the dying. They didn't have the tools or knowledge to do more. The industrial revolution changed medicine giving doctors God-like powers over us and also changed the mentality of those seeking health care as a profession. Instead of considering whether to be a minister or a doctor, now only those that can breeze through organic chemistry and have the money for medical school can be doctors. Is your doctor a healer or a health care business person just eager for the prestige, title, and the big bucks? Equality of care would have saved many times the number of lives saved by new technologies and treatments.
Corporations are finding that health insurance costs too high and so will insist that their chattel in congress create single payer health care or they will discontinue their participation.
America doesn't have the world's best health care system, just the most expensive. For those of you who worry about your health and wealth, that's bad news. The numbers are ugly. The United States spends 15.5 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, about $1.7 trillion a year. No other country comes close. Yet for all that money - equal to the entire economic output of France - 45 million Americans go without health insurance. France on a per-capita basis spends about half what we do on health care insures everyone. In fact, under France's universal health system, patients can visit doctors, even specialists, virtually any time they wish.
We're No. 22 among industrialized nations in life expectancy (77 years). Japan is No. 1 at 81 years. We're No. 25 in infant mortality rate (6.8 infant deaths per 1,000 births). Sweden leads with only 3.5 deaths per 1,000. In a study conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 41 percent of uninsured adults said they were unable to see a doctor when they needed to during the previous year and 56 percent did not have a personal doctor or other health care provider. Chronically ill uninsured adults were more than four times more likely to go without medical care or prescription drugs than chronically ill insured adults. Nevertheless, more than one in five uninsured adults with chronic conditions report spending at least $2,000 out of pocket in a year for medical care. The average visit to an ER now costs over $1,000, which is a high price to pay for an asthma attack or an infant's fever.
General Motors, the nation's largest buyer of health plans lost $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2005, its largest quarterly loss in more than a decade. The company cited the cost of providing health coverage for its workers and retirees as a main culprit. The first element of the Bush administration's response to America's health care crisis has been to cut funding for coverage and offer half-baked privatization plans like Health Savings Accounts that worsen existing problems and would help only 0.3 percent of uninsured adults. In his latest “victory” bush successfully lobbied Congress to cut federal funding for Medicaid, the nation's largest insurance program for the poor. Medicaid was already facing increased costs driven by “enrollment growth due to the economic downturn” during bush's first term. In addition, Congress recently passed the White House-backed Bankruptcy Bill, which will make it harder for uninsured Americans to recover from crippling debt brought on by medical problems.
The second part of the Bush administration's response appears to involve pretending health care problems don't exist saying “many of the uninsured may remain uninsured as a matter of choice.” Others, the report offered, are probably covered but do not report it, maybe because the “survey questions are confusing.” A more recent report funded by the Department of Health and Human Services set out to prove the number of uninsured is overstated.
