Every single day, the media is consumed with the question concerning how we as a nation plan to go forward in a world where the healthcare system is reformed, revamped, and reconstructed. You cannot turn on CNBC, read the New York Times, or even just show up at work without being faced with some sort of opinion. A couple things that most people seem to take as fact:
- The current system is too expensive
- Healthcare costs rise way too quickly
- The government has to do something
- Everyone deserves to be covered
The end goal is more noble than what it costs to get there...
I can't solve all of these problems. Actually, I don't think I can solve any of these problems. I did, however, read an interesting perspective the other day that took the discussion and thought process beyond a simple restatement of fact or a political analysis as to the timing and scorecard in the current Congress. I want to focus on the issue of cost, and specifically, how we measure rising cost.
Rising costs. Sometimes this is known as inflation. Inflation would be too few dollars chasing too few goods. It is easy to remember the last time you heard that healthcare costs rise faster than basically any other costs in this country. Health expenditures make up somewhere in the neighborhood of 16% of GDP. So, through time, the article that I read thought it important to ask one thing. Why? Why is healthcare so expensive? Why does the cost rise?
The assumption seems to be that costs are rising and this is unequivocally a horrible thing. Think of cars. Movie tickets. Almost anything. Have costs risen over time because these goods are exactly the same as they were? Have costs risen because of an overall rising of prices? Has it been a little bit of both? Examine the following argument.
I pose the following question: Has healthcare improved in the last 20 years? The last 10 Years? The last few years? Does this justify a higher cost? I mean, why do things improve in the first place? True, some people just believe in healthcare and in improving medicine for its own sake, and that's a nice ideal. But, that isn't going to keep drug companies making better drugs. It also isn't going to keep attracting the best doctors who want to push the envelope with new research and new procedures. At the end of the day, there has to be some type of economic motivation to keep a system improving itself. No one will keep improving a system to the maximum degree if they don't have an monetary gain at stake.
So, is healthcare and the cost of healthcare, rising too quickly? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But, the thing is, I think it's important to think of why costs rise. I think it's important to make the connection to how rising costs yield resources entering industries and attempting to find ways to make them better. The next time you or a relative gets sick...think about it. Do you want to take it on faith that your team of doctors is completely selfless and all about medicine for its own sake? Or, would you feel a little more comfortable if you knew that your team of doctors was just like any one else...trying to be the best that they can be all the time because they always have something to also gain for themselves and their own families? Socialism is a nice idea. But, can it work?
I can't solve all of these problems. Actually, I don't think I can solve any of these problems. I did, however, read an interesting perspective the other day that took the discussion and thought process beyond a simple restatement of fact or a political analysis as to the timing and scorecard in the current Congress. I want to focus on the issue of cost, and specifically, how we measure rising cost.
Rising costs. Sometimes this is known as inflation. Inflation would be too few dollars chasing too few goods. It is easy to remember the last time you heard that healthcare costs rise faster than basically any other costs in this country. Health expenditures make up somewhere in the neighborhood of 16% of GDP. So, through time, the article that I read thought it important to ask one thing. Why? Why is healthcare so expensive? Why does the cost rise?
The assumption seems to be that costs are rising and this is unequivocally a horrible thing. Think of cars. Movie tickets. Almost anything. Have costs risen over time because these goods are exactly the same as they were? Have costs risen because of an overall rising of prices? Has it been a little bit of both? Examine the following argument.
I pose the following question: Has healthcare improved in the last 20 years? The last 10 Years? The last few years? Does this justify a higher cost? I mean, why do things improve in the first place? True, some people just believe in healthcare and in improving medicine for its own sake, and that's a nice ideal. But, that isn't going to keep drug companies making better drugs. It also isn't going to keep attracting the best doctors who want to push the envelope with new research and new procedures. At the end of the day, there has to be some type of economic motivation to keep a system improving itself. No one will keep improving a system to the maximum degree if they don't have an monetary gain at stake.
So, is healthcare and the cost of healthcare, rising too quickly? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But, the thing is, I think it's important to think of why costs rise. I think it's important to make the connection to how rising costs yield resources entering industries and attempting to find ways to make them better. The next time you or a relative gets sick...think about it. Do you want to take it on faith that your team of doctors is completely selfless and all about medicine for its own sake? Or, would you feel a little more comfortable if you knew that your team of doctors was just like any one else...trying to be the best that they can be all the time because they always have something to also gain for themselves and their own families? Socialism is a nice idea. But, can it work?
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