Health care won’t be easy to fix. Most politicians offer great single-step ideas that have absolutely no financial merit. In order to fix health care, we have to address some of the core issues. It’s time to abandon the “patch it up” approach – those do not work.
We have the best health care system in the world – why? because we are capitalist pigs! In the U.S. health care professionals have an incentive to do fundamental research, invent new procedures, and improve just about anything they can. It is no surprise that:
- The rest of the world comes here to learn anything we will teach them.
- People who with the most difficult conditions come here to get treatment.
- We are the number one source of new drugs. Medicines are developed here and sold world wide.
In reality, we have a health care problem because we subsidize health care for the rest of the world. Yes, the world is getting healthier at our expense!
Here is how we can fix it step by step:
1) Let’s start with the pharmaceuticals. When pharmaceuticals apply for drug approval with foreign FDAs, as a part of the drug approval process in that country – the drug’s selling price is negotiated. If a price is not agreed upon, the drug does not achieve FDA approval in that country. This practice is forbidden in the U.S. As a result, the pharmaceuticals have to agree to very low prices world wide, and we here in the U.S. have to pay the difference. Since this has become an unfair situation for us, we have to force the FDA to set price limits just like other countries do. If we do that, the pharmaceuticals will have to price their drugs more evenly across nations and have other countries pay their fair share in drug development. Under normal circumstances, I would object to such government intervention, but in this case it is needed since foreign governments are exercising a de facto tariff on the U.S.
2) Price quote mandate. Medical care is one of the only trades in the U.S. in which you get service with no price estimate before hand. When was the last time you went to the doctor and got a price quote before seeing the doctor? They will outright refuse! This prevents competition since we are a captive audience. Doctors are in collusion by making this “standard practice”. Congress should immediately enact legislation that forces every doctor/clinic/hospital to provide a written quote for every visit – allowing consumers to make educated decisions.
3) No cash, no insurance – no service! We have to stop paying for people with no coverage. In reality, many people don’t carry insurance because they know the state and federal governments will pick up the tab. Clinics and hospitals have to be profitable organizations for them to be viable in the long run. While I do not want to force insurance on everyone, if you don’t have insurance – you must be willing to pay cash.
More to come…