This article was recently published in our local paper.
It is not my article, however I thought I would share it with you all and get your opinions.
Cliff notes:

"The cause of the health care crisis is the absence of price competition between the providers of goods and services that doctors prescribe for their patients."

"The good news is it can be fixed, by giving the decision-maker a financial incentive to be thrifty, thereby generating price competition in the market"

So I guess this topic is of no interest of any you.............

I don't believe there is a health care "crisis" to begin with.

I think the "crisis" is something the democrats made up, to convince people that we need a "solution" of some sort.

But then again, I don't believe in "global warming" either, so don't listen to me.

Anything not going in this administration's way is a "crisis"

Healthcare is one of the few industries that is doing well, and the government wants to intervene.

Of course it is.  But the writer is not describing anything earth-shattering,  "Hey, the free market will fix it".

As an aside, everything he points out is true.  As a doc, the only time I consider price is when the patient is paying out of pocket.  I tell the patient what tests are absolutely necessary to make/confirm a diagnosis, and which tests are to rule out those diseases that are very unlikely.  We decide together which tests to do, and even then we start at the top of the list of the most necessary tests and work our way down.  That's how is should be for everyone.  What you'd actually see is prices plummet for anything medical related as everyone tries to outcompete everyone else.

This so-called "Administration" can only operate in "crisis" mode.

Their agenda is such socialist bullshit, it would never fly unless under the cover of a series of fake crisis'.

There is a health care crisis......with the current insurance industry being penny pinchers when it comes to healthcare.

i don't know if it's a crisis,  it's more of a systemic problem.  

the problem is that you can't buy insurance outside your work, or across state lines,  and nobody knows what gets charged.  last problem is there is no "loser pays" system in the legal system, so doctors pay out the ass for all these frivolous lawsuits and their costs rise and rise and rise to cover malpractice insurance.

As long as we have a system where ALL of the patients are not responsible for ALL of their costs....either directly or
via insurance they pay for themselves there can be no solution.

Because the current system where patients are covered by third party payors who are funded by premiums and taxes
on persons not needing care provides no reason for patients and their families to make choices on what care, how much care
and what levels of care are proveded.

In short Medicare/Medicaid programs etc. make it possible for 90 year old granny to show up in ER dying and for her kids
to tell the healthcare facility to "do everything possible"....which is synonymous with "spare no expense".  Since they don't
see the bill...the bill goes to .gov who pays whatever percentage they choose to pay and tells the hospital to eat the rest
most family's refuse to accept that granny is gonna die.  They require society to invest massive amounts of capital in a futile
attempt to avoid the unavoidable.   Death.   As long as a system exists that refuses to address the massive costs involved in
delaying the inevitable by a few days, weeks or months we will have no real solutions.

"You ain't seen bad yet, but it's comin'....."


That may be true, but "broken clocks" and "twice a day" and all.

A huge percentage of the US medical industry is driven by what amounts to government deficit spending. Much of the rest is driven by insurance companies betting on the markets.

When government funds are no longer available, the markets will dive and medicine as an industry will need to crash back to being largely a cash service business. That level of downward economic pressure will drive a large percentage of employees out of the industry, into unemployment.

The medical industry in the US has never had a crash or even a significant recession, so a lot of people think it won't ever happen, just because it never has yet.
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