The unstoppable evolution of health care reform
Submitted by Kirk Caraway on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 7:32am
These days, I get a chuckle when I see people engaging in philosophical debates over health care reform, or "socialized medicine" as opponents call it.
I understand and respect the positions of those who think government should not be a part of the health care system, that the free market will fix everything. It's an interesting philosophical position, but it faces the brick wall of reality.
That reality is the United States will have some form of socialized medicine some day, and not just because Obama and the Democrats want it. It will eventually happen. The only question is how soon.
The health care reform bill that just passed is a tiny step toward that eventual outcome. Economics will force us, kicking and screaming, the rest of the way down that road.
Every other industrialized country in the world has some form of socialized medicine. These nations found out long ago that government-run health care systems were more efficient and less costly than the free-market American example. As such, they spend about half as much as we do on health care, which gives these countries a big advantage in international trade.
Every product and service we produce here in the USA carries an extra health care tax compared to those other countries. For instance, every General Motors car now costs an extra $1,600 just to cover that company's health care costs. It's hard to compete against the imports when you start that far down in the hole.
This reminds me of a long time ago when I used to closely follow auto racing. There was always this pattern where some race team would come up with a new technical advantage that would make the car go faster. Then, the traditionalists would complain about the newfangled technology, but eventually they would all adapt to it, because to not adapt was to be uncompetitive.
That is where we are today. The rest of the world has figured out a way to make their economies run better, while we stand around debating the evils of socialized medicine.
But it's not just international trade that is applying the pressure. Huge portions of federal and state budgets are spent on health care. As those costs rise, they threaten the financial solvency all government entities, as well as many corporations who are in the same boat.
There will have to be more efforts by government to step in and control prices. That might not sit well with the free market purists, but economic necessity trumps philosophy.
What stands in the way of further reform is politics, but even that is getting easier. The big difference between the current reform efforts and those in the past is that major industries have either dropped their opposition, or actively campaigned in favor of the changes. Big employers such as the auto industry know that health care reform will greatly improve their bottom line.
The big holdout here is, of course, the health care industry itself, led by the insurance companies. I was talking to a doctor a few days ago, who pointed out that one-third of every health care dollar goes to the insurance companies, which does nothing to improve anyone's health. They are just the middle man in this game.
But these middle men have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on keeping the status quo, bribing politicians with campaign cash, and scaring the uninformed with their 30-second commercials. They still hold the power to whip up the natural distrust of government that has been ingrained in us by our founding fathers.
As the saying goes, you can fool all of the people some of the time. But that time is running out.
Americans of all stripes are disgusted with the health care system we have today. Even those with insurance complain about all the stupid nonsense they go through to get claims paid. It's not a surprise that the most efficient and well-liked health care delivery system we have today is Medicare, the one controlled by the government. It's too bad that those of us under 65 don't have the option to buy into that system.
People like Rush Limbaugh can rail all they want against reform. But when he said that if "Obamacare" passed he would get his health care in Costa Rica, even he was ignorant of the fact that Costa Rica has a very good system of socialized medicine.
The rest of the world has passed us by. When will we get back in the race?
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