Winston, your argument is flawed in that it is based on the assumption that if Medicare had never been enacted the cost of health care would have some how ceased to rise and this is simply a naive perspective IMO. Making Medicare the bad guy is a popular conservative talking point aimed at dismantling social programs like Medicare and Medicaid but in no way is supported by the facts. Health Care Costs have risen for many reasons: newer technologies, new pharmaceuticals, the way pharmaceuticals are openly advertised to the public, people going to the emergency room with no insurance and getting treated but never paying the bill, inefficiencies in how medical records are kept, etc. We could go on and on. Conservatives like to use this "open market" argument to support their belief that the "open market" is best in every situation. It is not. I am a supporter of free markets in the vast majority of industries but health care is not one of them, at least not for the entire industry. Further there is simply no evidence to support the fact that an open market would create a more affordable or more accessible health care system. In fact, I am willing to bet it would leave major holes in the system where the least never got treated. I guess if you are living in an Ayn Rand novel then that is not so bad but here in the real world it is below the level of humane.
Why is healthcare so costly? How is it that a CAT scan in Japan with the latest technology is $80 and in America it's $900 with old technology? The reason is because people with insurance are subsidizing healthcare for people without insurance. If everyone has insurance, the costs will lower to a more true cost. With everyone looking for an insurance policy, companies will be competing with each other for business. Different levels of care, lower premiums, etc. will all play a part in attracting new customers just like anything else in the free market.
NC no doubt the cost of HC would have risen without Medicare and the hole in the system would have been worse, but that doesn't change the point I made. Medicare is a major driver of the healthcare pricing system and insurance reimbursements for drug, hospital charges etc follow its lead. This is well documented and not a conservative construct. Is a completely open market a complete solution? No I don't think so....in fact there is no completely open market in any sector. However a greater integration of open market principals are needed. If there were more true competition for goods and services prices would find more opportunities for savings. There have studies published (which I have posted in other threads that locate up to 700 billion a year in potential savings by using many different avenues. NC I have never advocated the Ayn Rand ethos in fact I reject the Libertarian Party because in addition to the live free attitude to personal life style (which I support) there is a strong trend to the Rand survival of the fittest philosophy I read the party platform. To say completely private healthcare is a solution is as wrong as to say the government should run it completely. Please don't put words in my mouth.
I haven't seen anything change except insurance, pharma & hospitals have received a guaranteed profit for endorsing the AHCA. The dampening of competition has been going on for 40 years or more. I don't see any change yet.
I'm still waiting on an example of "dampening of competition". An excess of profiteering is more what I've seen in the medical industry.
Red you only see what you wish to or are willfully blind. The dampening is from Medicare setting rates that hospitals, pharma and insurance use to set their rates. The lack of openness in pricing throughout the industry. These things lead to zero competition. Also the profiteering you note IS there in spades and is another example that there is no competition.
This is 100% accurate. The vast majority of Americans have no idea what a CPT code is, or that when they go to the doctor every poke and prod has a different code, and a different charge. Most have no idea how these various procedures are costed out, and they lack the ability to understand a EOB. The cost of our medical care is shrouded in secrecy and convulsion. That is in large part due to medicare and the replication of its model throughout the industry.
