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March 22, 2010

The Day America's Healthcare Died

Posted by The MaryHunter at March 22, 2010 3:56 AM

The cost of health care in America has soared since the 60s. Dr. Jason Fodeman, a resident in internal medicine and former Heritage Foundation fellow, explains one reason why Sunday was " the day that sent the world's premier health care system to its grave." For one thing, Democrats and President Obama have done NOTHING to contain costs and increase availability of quality medical care.

Why does health care cost so much in this country?

[M]ost of the blame lies with a third party payer system that isolates patients from cost at time of purchase. Once the initial insurance premium has been paid additional services only require a copayment. The often nominal fee does not sufficiently reflect actual cost or value of the service and hence fails to restrain demand. This throws normal market forces out the window and creates a situation where all the players in the game have no incentive to control costs.

In 1965, the year Medicare became law, 52 percent of per capita health care expenditures were out of pocket. By 2005 this had plummeted to only 15 percent. As out of pocket spending declined, the prevalence of third party payers has skyrocketed. Coincidentally, since 1965 real per-capita health care expenditures have increased approximately six-fold.

ObamaCare will put over one trillion dollars into the health care system. To do this without fundamentally reforming the reason for rising health care costs is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Further expanding the role of government in the health care sector will only serve to accelerate current trends. It will drown an industry already regulated to death with a slew of new mandates, regulations, red tape, and taxes that simultaneously will hinder patients from receiving desired care.

All the high-fiving and back-slapping by Dear Leader and his Democrat puppets in Congress will turn into bemoaning and loathing of the electorate come November. But it will not change the fact that yesterday, American health care died.