Arthur Laffer says the key to solving the skyrocketing costs of healthcare is to reduce the gap between what people pay for health care and the costs of what they receive. As long as the government is subsidizing insurance or care, people will demand more without accounting for the costs required to produce the increase in quality medical care.
Laffer notes doing nothing would be better than Obama’s plan. In fact, “a $1 trillion increase in federal government health subsidies will accelerate health-care inflation, lead to continued growth in health-care expenditures, and diminish our economic growth even further. Despite these costs, some 30 million people will remain uninsured.”
Rather than expanding the role of government in the health-care market, Laffer argues Congress should implement a patient-centered approach to health-care reform that stresses individual ownership of insurance policies and leverages Health Savings Accounts, as a low-premium, high-deductible alternative to traditional insurance that includes a tax-advantaged savings account.
In such a scheme people can purchase insurance policies across state lines and reduce the number of mandated benefits people don’t need. Laffer proposes the reallocation of Medicaid spending as simple vouchers for low-income individuals to purchase their own insurance. He also calls for the reduction of the cost of medical procedures by reforming tort liability laws.
“Congress needs to focus on reform that promotes what Americans want most: immediate, measurable ways to make health care more accessible and affordable without jeopardizing quality, individual choice, or personalized care.
“Because Mr. Obama has incorrectly diagnosed the problems with our health-care system, any reform based on his priorities would worsen the current inefficiencies. Americans would pay even more for lower quality and less access to care. This doesn’t sound like reform we can believe in.
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Laffer also was telling us that there would be no housing bubble crisis right up to the crisis. He was wrong on that, and he is wrong on health care reform. Reform will bend the cost curve over time. That is the goal, and it will work. Medicare has been full of overpayments and waste mainly because there has been so little attention on how the private markets have bilked the system. Laffer is wrong. Listen to Edi. He tells The Truth!
There was a time that people went into medicine because they wanted to help people and not because they wanted to make it rich. Part of the high costs of medicine comes with the 300,000 dollar cost to go through medical school.
Yes, Edi, I agree. What we have stinks for many. Yet recent Rasmussen poll says 80% are happy with their health care plan.
Bottom line ought to be Empowering people instead of insurance companies and bureaucracies.
But the contending factions in Congress are locked into a false debate over “who should be in control of health and medical care?” And the answer is people and their physicians; not governments, and not insurance companies.
The American people need mechanisms to control costs, provide affordable insurance, and access to quality health care. The House Bill does nothing to meet these goals but instead would create an overreaching Rube Goldberg hodgepodge.
Another thing Edi, what would be the incentive for college kids to go into medicine if they know Democrats are going to make it difficult for them to make an above average living? Hell, eight years of post graduate schooling and internships followed by 5 years of community service; for what, to make $25 an hr and have most of that taxed?
No thanks, I’ll join work as a fire captain in San Ramon where I can retire at 50 and pull down $250,000 a year pension.
D’uh.
I think that at some point we should talk about health care independent of insurance. Why not have some if not all of the basics covered as part of an American health care plan: All women get prenatal care, all children are given inoculations and regular check ups including dental, how about a full blood test work up at ages 1-5-10-18-31-41-51-61, everything that can be looked at for preventive should be done. Records maintained so red flag indicators can be tracked. Maybe we can have more regular check ups to catch disorders sooner. May screens for cancer can be done on a more regular basis etc.
We should send people to medical school and pay for it in exchange for service in the community providing the above sort of thing.
While we may not be able to provide everything, what we can do let us do for all of us regardless of income and just get it done.
Maybe we can go about things getting a single price for health care and not have different rates for different insurers or lack there of.
What ever it is, let us recognize that what we have stinks and get something going forward.