Best Medical Treatment in the World?
I often hear or read people who argue that the reason we shouldn’t move to a universal healthcare system, like every other developed country has, is that we would lose our status as having The Best Medical Care in the World. The self-evident truth of this status is often thrown about as though it were part of the patriotic article of faith that we are The Greatest Nation on Earth. Anyone who questions it is in danger of being labeled “un-American.”
And yet, is it really true? Consider this story from CNN: Being a bad patient can save your life. Of course, it is certainly possible that the patient in this story merely had an extraordinary run of bad luck, and it is also possible that he would have fared worse in any other country. But stories like this should make us at least wonder if we really are benefitting as much as some people think we are from our collective decision to keep our medical system private.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 am
Health care is such an sticky issue. I think the reason it’s so divisive is that the current hodgepodge “system” in the US isn’t all government or all private. So people on one side point to health care companies & $#%^* HMOs and say, “see! the free market approach isn’t working!” and people on the other side point at all the regulations and at Medicare and say, “see! this is only going to get worse if we have a one-payer system.” We all point to the same obviously broken mess (albeit different parts) and draw completely different conclusions.
Eg, the guy in the article talks about horrible things that happened to him as a patient, and yet, based on the same facts (well, we readers only get a subset of all that he went through), apparently he and the Spoon somehow end up with opposing solutions.
Questions we have to step back and ask ourselves:
- Why on earth should we tie one’s health care to one’s current job? I think I had at least 4-5 different so-called primary care physicians in the 8.5 years I lived in DC. And I only worked at 3 different places, but at least two or three times my employer decided to switch companies. Why should employers make health care decisions? Insanity. Let people the people/patients do it.
- What if I want to buy just health INSURANCE (protection against the big stuff), not virtually comprehensive health coverage? I mean, what was wrong with paying out of pocket for routine medical bills like check-ups, etc.? (Has this not contributed to the rise in health care costs?) I.e., I buy car insurance for accidents, not to cover oil changes. A car insurance salesman would be happy to sell such a policy to me, of course, but I’m not gonna fall for it.
In sum, if we actually want the best medical treatment in the world, we first 1) get rid of the artificial link between one’s job and one’s health care (btw, does anyone ever actually think about or even know what this link is?? — specifically, it’s the IRS saying that health coverage bought through one’s employer is tax free) and 2) take away the special treatment that they give to HMOs in the HMO Act of 1973.
This would be a start towards a free-market system (you’d have to repeal plenty of other stuff, too, to make it a true free-market health care system), and prices would go down (leading to higher coverage, mind you) and quality would go up. But until then, don’t blame so-called “private” health care. That doesn’t exist unless you willingly ignore the govt’s fingerprints on every part of the system.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Oh, dear, we really must get together soon. I knew you were bordering on the edge of heresy, but now on the edge of liberalism too???
Miss you. Let’s have coffee. Though beer is better. Much much much better. So maybe beer. The Yard House (which is within walking distance from my house) has about 6,000 beers on tap or something (I may be exaggerating a tiny bit…but not much). Always good to have 6,000 beers on tap within walking distance from one’s domicile, I say.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
DanB’s assessment is pretty good, as far as the madness of making insurance employee-driven(perhaps health organizations should be like credit unions), but my problem with the current system is the insurance companies. If relying on an employer to make your health care choices is crazy, how whacked out is placing those decisions into the hands of a company that makes its money only if it doesnt have to pay for your medical care?
One thing the pro-privatization crowd forgets is that when the government runs a program, it’s primary focus is people (even if they dont do a very good job sometimes). Any private company providing the same services instead of government will have a different priority: Profit.
Companies that do not think about profit first do not succeed in a for-profit arena.
October 13th, 2008 at 9:12 am
do you own car insurance? if you own/if you owned a home, do you/would you have a homeowners policy?
what’s the difference?
as with any insurance, you just have to carefully define what’s covered and isn’t covered, and make personal choices about deductibles vs. monthly payments, etc., etc.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:09 am
The Y! email address I have for you bounced saying you no longer exist!
I hope I have it right. Anyway, I emailed you and my friend Aaron to see if either of you are available tomorrow for lunch or dinner? I arrive a little after 11 and have to work until about 6pm. And I have a car this time!