The problem with the U.S. Health Care system is a combination of third party payments, government regulations and an artificial limited supply of doctors. Since the average person does not directly pay for their health care they do not care about the costs. Medical insurance encourages unnecessary procedures and waste due to the illusion of it being "free" via a co-pay. In a true free market, direct price competition would drive down prices and encourage others to enter the market, further reducing costs. The problem is government regulation and organizations such as the AMA (American Medical Association) have created an artificial scarcity of doctors, limiting the supply. This is done by limiting the number of medical schools, medical licenses and increasing requirements. Thus the excessive demand cannot be met by normal market forces. Most people are well aware that a limited supply of a good or service increases it's value (cost). Few are aware that attempting to restrict a good or service's price (price controls) limits it's supply causing shortages. It is thus impossible for government controls to either increase the supply of medical care or lower it's price. Government can only "fix" the U.S. health care system by getting out of the way.
20/20: Sick in America (41 min)
Articles:
A Four-Step Health-Care Solution (Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Ph.D. Professor of Economics)
American Healthcare Fascialism (Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Ph.D. Professor of Economics)
Free Market Medicine (Ron Paul, M.D.)
Healthcare and Insurance on a Desert Island (Gilbert G. Berdine, M.D.)
Let Customers Control The Money And Market Will Cure Health Care (Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute)
How Medical Boards Nationalized Health Care (Henry E. Jones, M.D.)
How to Cure Health Care (Milton Friedman, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Economics, 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics)
Real Medical Freedom (Dale Steinreich, Ph.D. Professor of Economics)
Regulation, Not Size, Is Health Care's Biggest Problem (David Gratzer, M.D.)
The Health Czar Can't Calculate (Gabriel E. Vidal, M.B.A.)
Understanding the Costs of Healthcare (D.W. MacKenzie, Ph.D. Professor of Economics)
Books:
American Health Care: Government, Market Processes, and the Public Interest (Roger D. Feldman, Ph.D. Professor of Economics, 2000)
Consumer-Driven Health Care: Implications for Providers, Payers, and Policy-Makers (Regina E. Herzlinger, Ph.D. Professor of Business Administration, 2004)
Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care (Arnold Kling, Ph.D. Economics, MIT, 2008)
Destroying Insurance Markets (PDF) (Conrad F. Meier, Registered Health Underwriter, 2005)
Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It (Michael F. Cannon, J.M. Law and Economics; Michael D. Tanner, 2007)
Lives at Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance Around the World (John C. Goodman, Ph.D. Economics, 2004)
Market-driven Health Care: Who Wins, Who Loses In The Transformation Of America's Largest Service Industry (Regina E. Herzlinger, Ph.D. Professor of Business Administration, 1999)
Medicare Meets Mephistopheles (David A. Hyman, J.D. M.D. Professor of Health Law and Policy. 2006)
Origins of American Health Insurance: A History of Industrial Sickness Funds (John E. Murray, J.D. Professor of Law, 2007)
Power to the Patient: Selected Health Care Issues and Policy Solutions (Scott W. Atlas, M.D., 2005)
The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care (David Gratzer, M.D., 2006)
Who Killed Health Care?: America's $2 Trillion Medical Problem - and the Consumer-Driven Cure (Regina E. Herzlinger, Ph.D. Professor of Business Administration, 2007)
Historic:
100 Years of Medical Robbery (Dale Steinreich, Ph.D. Professor of Economics)
Health Costs and History: Government programs always exceed their spending estimates (The Wall Street Journal)
Papers:
A BetterWay to Generate and Use Comparative-Effectiveness Research (PDF) (Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute)
A Gift of Life Deserves Compensation: How to Increase Living Kidney Donation with Realistic Incentives (PDF) (Arthur J. Matas, M.D. Professor of Surgery)
Does the Doctor Need a Boss? (PDF) (Arnold Kling, Ph.D. Economics, MIT; Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute)
Health-Status Insurance: How Markets Can Provide Health Security (PDF) (John H. Cochrane, Ph.D. Professor of Finance)
Medical Licensing: An Obstacle to Affordable, Quality Care (PDF) (Shirley Svorny, Ph.D. Professor of Economics)
Uncritical Condition (PDF) (Business & Media Institute)
Canada:
20/20: Health Care: Does Canada Do It Better? (6 min)
A Short Course in Brain Surgery (5 min)
Dead Meat (25 min)
Canadacare May Have Killed Actress Natasha Richardson (New York Post)
The Trouble with Canadian Healthcare (The American)
Books:
Canadian Health Policy Failures (PDF) (Brett J. Skinner, Ph.D. Health Sciences, 2009)
Papers:
Access Delayed, Access Denied: Waiting for New Medicines in Canada 2009 Report (PDF) (Brett J. Skinner, Ph.D. Health Sciences)
Health Insurance and Bankruptcy Rates in Canada and the United States (PDF) (Brett J. Skinner, Ph.D. Health Sciences, )
Realities of Health Policy in North America: Government is the Problem, Not the Solution (PDF) (Brett J. Skinner, Ph.D. Health Sciences)
The Hidden Costs of Single Payer Health Insurance: A Comparison of the United States and Canada (PDF) (Brett J. Skinner, Ph.D. Health Sciences)
Wait Times:
Canadians still waiting too long for surgery: Report (National Post, Canada)
Obese dying while waiting for weight-loss surgery (National Post, Canada)
Wait times costing Canada billions: doctors (National Post, Canada)
Wait times for surgery in Canada at all-time high: study (CBC, Canada)
Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada, 19th Edition (PDF) (Fraser Institute)
Sicko:
20/20: Healthy in Cuba, Sick in America? (5 min)
A Prescription for SiCKO (David Gratzer, M.D.)
Cuba: What a Great Place to Visit! Never Mind the Dictatorship (Business & Media Institute)
Enough Gushing over Moore to Make You 'Sicko' (Business & Media Institute)
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of 'Free' Health Care (Business & Media Institute)
Michael Moore Checks Into Weight Loss Center (San Francisco Chronicle)
Michael Moore Goes Sicko on Health Care Reform (Cato Institute)
Moore's Sick Rx (Cato Institute)
Re-examining the Cuban Health Care System: Towards a Qualitative Critique (PDF)
Review: 'SiCKO' Doesn't Offer Cure-All for Health Care (Business & Media Institute)
‘Sicko,’ Castro and the ‘120 Years Club’ (The New York Times)
"Sicko" Presents False View of Cuba's Health System (National Center for Public Policy Research)
SiCKO patients got VIP treatment in Cuba (Reuters)
The Anti-Michael Moore (FrontPageMag)
The Myth of Cuban Health Care (National Review)
Who's Really 'Sicko' (David Gratzer, M.D.)
Uninsured:
Uninsured In America (10 min)
Are There Really 47 Million Americans Who Can’t Afford Health Insurance? (Dominick T. Armentano, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Economics)
Fact Sheet: America's Uninsured (Business & Media Institute)
Health Care Lie: '47 Million Uninsured Americans' (Business & Media Institute)
I'm commenting on an old post and so my comments may be ignored, but in my cursory examination of the material here I don't see the issue of the high cost of practicing medicine today being addressed. My family has been in medicine since the mid 19th century. (I have a son and daughter in graduate school for degrees in medicine.)
ReplyDeleteSo that we all understand I have to say that doctors balance their needs, desires, and costs just like everyone else. Right now the risk of being a doctor is very high and the rewards are very low. If you're someone who is called (i.e. a compelling need) to be in healthcare you understand it isn't about the money. But one has to balance that calling with the high personal costs of going into medicine today. There are many very talented healthcare professionals that can't afford the costs of practicing medicine in the US today. I'm sure that this is/will contributing/contribute to the state of our healthcare.