Jeff's Thought
It’s about health care
Wednesday February 3, 2010, 1:12 pm
At a recent forum in San Ramon, I was asked a question by a member of the audience what was to be done about the health care crisis. Something about that phrase leapt out at me and I had to reevaluate what I was going to say. My response could be summed up in the following paragraph.
The word crisis conjures up images of doctors not doctoring, nurses not nursing, patients going untreated – like a medieval sanatorium. We do not have this condition in America. Almost 300 million people in this country have available to them the finest medical establishment in the history of the world. The crisis is not in health care – the crisis is in the cost of health care and the two responsible maladies are both directly attributable to the federal government and Congress in particular.
HMOs are roundly criticized today as being the evil, soulless bureaucracies that prevent egalitarian medical treatment of all, but you must remember that Congress itself created the HMO system we know today with the HMO Act of 1973. Prior to that, medical practice was still very market oriented, because the free market over the course of our Republic had set it up that way. Doctors made house calls and took on charity and hardship cases, religious and humanitarian groups built and managed hospitals (it’s not a mystery why so many have religious names), and costs were managed by the simple fact that if one provider charged you too much, you simply went to his competitor. HMOs do prevent many of these workable facets of our former system from functioning today, but it must be understood that Congress’ initial meddling was what has gotten us into “crisis” mode.
The second reason for skyrocketing health care is inflation. Prices have been inflating, at a faster or slower rate for 100 years. The dollar is now only worth five percent of what it was when the Federal Reserve willed itself into existence on the pretext of preventing inflation. They have failed in their mission and we are paying the cost – in increasingly worthless dollars. This overall economic trend will necessarily have a negative effect on the cost of medical services and pharmaceuticals. By refusing to reign in the Federal Reserve and its inflationary practices, by fostering runaway government spending, which facilitates the spread of those inflated dollars into the marketplace, and by basing our national ledger on debt and borrowing rather than on wealth and industry, Congress has created a perfect storm.
The climax of this tragi-comedy is that culprit that created this storm is now selflessly preaching to the people that only it can save them – if only they surrender their free market principles, rights to privacy, and their quaint desire not to be treated in the ER or the obstetrics wing as they are at the DMV.
As if it weren’t bad enough that our pilots seem intent on wrecking the ship of our medical establishment on the shoals of big government, there are sharks in the water too – I’m talking about trial lawyers. Why don’t doctors take on charity cases in the US anymore? Because they could be ruined by the first grifter that came along. How effective can a surgeon be when he must glance over his proverbial shoulder to see if an attorney is wagging his finger at him?
I want to conclude by saying that the problem we face is a major one with no quick fixes – at least not when the fix is in from Washington. But when I take your message to Capitol Hill, I will work hard to see that all medical expenses are tax deductible, Health Savings Accounts are available to all Americans should they so choose, and that employers can deduct contributions to your health plans from their taxes.
In the future, I would like very much to continue this discussion about the dangerous and un-Constitutional nature of government run health care, especially a conversation I had with a student recently on the subject. Please let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.