Public Option Lowers Healthcare Costs?
I received this information in an email today.
The stated price tag for [Obama-care] coverage is estimated at only $894 billion. This $894 billion dollar boondoggle is the result of trying to cover 25 million un-insured with health INSURANCE. Do the math. That is $35,760 for each un-insured. Hey, it’s a government program so what did you expect? A bargain? Consider this. The ancestors of today’s demo goons thought social security would only require $30 per worker per year. Today, the payroll tax bite for that little gem and its offspring Medicare is up to $15,300 per worker per year which is I guess just a Washington style rounding error from the original $30 per year estimate.
Even if you believe that we need to insure the uninsured, does this plan seem like a good way to do it?
February 21st, 2010 at 11:43 am
I am always looking for additional tips to pass on to others.Rxx Help
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Thanks for the note. The key to remember, I think, is that lowering the cost of anything requires open market competition. Costs are reduced when productivity increases or excessive profits are reduced. Both only occur in a competitive environment. A single payer system only shifts the responsibility for paying the costs from the insured (or her employer) to the government reducing the incidents of competition and removing incentives to increase productivity and lower prices. IAt the same time, the bill before congress will bring more users of health services into the system while adding another layer of unproductive bureaucracy to the system. The result will be higher costs and less incentive to improve.
On the other hand, opening the insurance market to interstate competition and putting each purchaser of health care in charge of their own purchases and use will create the incentives for the providers and consumers of health care to improve the system. The producers will be incented to increase productivity so as to better compete in the market and increase profits. Consumers will be incented to shop wisely, conserve their use of health care, and demand more from providers.
Health care is no different than anything else we purchase. Image what we’d be paying now for cell phones if you could only access your service from the government-approved provider. Look at the difference between the way cable TV is provided compared with satellite TV. One is pure competition, the other is a government-licensed franchise without competition.