The real problem with healthcare

[DrAnthonyRodrig]

According to the World Health Organization (2013), the average cost of healthcare in the United States was over $8 thousand per person in 2010, which is the highest in the world. That's over $30 thousand for a family of four! Yet, the WHO reported in 2000 that the U.S. ranked 37th in the quality of healthcare. For comparison, France's costs were about half of the U.S.'s but ranked first in the quality of healthcare. Most importantly, healthcare costs are projected to reach $5 trillion by 2022, or about 20% of the GDP and about $14.7 thousand per person (CMMS, 2013). Before addressing healthcare insurance, the U.S. must address the cost and the quality of healthcare. Lowering healthcare costs and improving healthcare quality ought to be a national priority.

Here's my opinion. In a free market, cost is lowered and quality is improved by increasing supply (i.e., increasing competition) and by decreasing demand. To increase supply, the U.S. may, for example:

- Offer free tuition to healthcare students (e.g., doctors and nurses).
- Implement a liberal immigration policy for qualified healthcare professionals.
- Offer significant tax breaks to new or to expanded healthcare facilities (e.g., hospitals).

And, to decrease demand, the U.S. may, for example:

- Aggressively promote (not mandate) healthy living. That is, heavily encourage no smoking, healthy eating, and regular exercise.
- Offer free annual physicals.
- Practice preventive treatment (e.g., controlling high blood pressure).

Furthermore, prices are lowered by reducing costs. To reduce healthcare costs, the U.S. may, for example:

- Offer significant tax breaks tied to price reductions to healthcare professionals (e.g., doctors), to healthcare facilities (e.g., hospitals), to pharmaceutical firms, etc.
- Reform tort laws to eliminate frivolous lawsuits and to minimize defensive medicine (i.e., services undertaken to minimize the risk of lawsuits).

In the Information Age, information drives the economy. To lower cost and improve quality, the U.S. may:

- Effectively and efficiently utilize technology to improve the availability of patient information and to lower the administration cost of healthcare.
- For the benefit of transparency, widely publicize healthcare ratings (e.g., doctors' evaluations) and healthcare costs (e.g., doctors' fees).

Dr. Anthony Rodriguez

References

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2013). National health expenditures projections. Washington, DC: Author.
World Health Organization. (2000). The world health report: 2000. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.
World Health Organization. (2013). World health statistics: 2013. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.

 

[bored]

Healthcare should be a right not a privilege therefore healthcare providers (Doctors, insurance carriers) should have their profits limited by law.

I work in multi-state medical billing/collection and it is a enormous clusterf*ck that has too many insurance carriers, each with their own set of F-you bogus reasons - jump through 10 hoops frontwards then backwards then skip sideways and fall down - to avoid paying claims meanwhile worthless bean-counter insurance executives are making millions while hospitals are not properly paid or funded for the care they provide and healthcare workers - EXCEPT DOCTORS - are not properly paid for their skills and services.

Employer health insurance gets crappier every year. It has eroded workers stagnated wages even further which is all around bad for the economy. Again, this is not because the actual cost of health care has skyrocketed, it is because GREED rules and we have no laws preventing us from the harm we are done by greedy insurance corporations and corrupt doctors. Tighter regulation is needed.

And how about health care 'professionals' stop all their blather blaming patients for their ailments? Most conditions are genetic or accidental. It is also a fact that the population is aging and the frequency and need for medical treatment increases with age.