Why Health Care is Sick and Fading

The sympthoms are clear enough. A smaller percentage of the population has real health care coverage and the cost of that coverage rises dramatically every year. Yet diagnosing the underlying causes is political suicide given the huge power of the vested interests which control the debate: big pharma, hospitals and HMOs, and insurance companies.

Healthcare's biggest single problem is the huge portion of total health care costs – about 31 percent, ....– that are consumed by the insurance and billing bureaucracy without ever providing direct patient care. Costs for marketing, broker sales commissions, actuarial costs, gatekeepers, high executive salaries, increasing shareholder profits, even the high costs of their lobbying and campaign contributions are passed on to the patient (and in most cases employers, who have been taking their jobs offshore to avoid the costs).

Even our effective system of delivery for the aged, Medicare, is currently under attack by the Bush administration which is using government subsidies to pretend that its Medicare Advantage program is a better deal. It is for insurance companies, but not for the tax payer,

Medicare is stunningly successful and popular. Why would anyone want to desert it? Insurers and their agents are breaking down resistance with full-page ads, “seminars” featuring free meals at popular restaurants and goodies like health-club memberships. Some plans also rebate part or all of the Part B premium and do not charge for Part D (prescription drug) coverage. ......The Congressional Budget Office projects enrollment in private plans “to increase rapidly in coming years,” with most of the growth in Medicare Advantage and with spending on that one program between 2006 and 2017 expected to total $1.5 trillion.

The concept that introducing yet another layer of unnecessary administration to the healthcare system makes it more competitive and efficient simply defies common sense.