What is the fundamental problem with healthcare?
What is wrong with healthcare in America? I think many would argue the problem with healthcare in America is the rising cost of healthcare. But why are the costs of healthcare rising? Is it because of greedy profit seeking doctors, nurses, health insurance companies, medical equipment manufacturers, or drug makers? What about lawsuits and the cost of insurance to guard against such lawsuits and potential financial liability? What about the increase in costs due to deteriorating health, be it old age or poor eating and exercise habits? Is it actually inflation (and thus proves the inflation numbers are in fact massaged or manipulated)? Or is rising costs simply a unique component of the health care industry because it involves treating human beings and trying to save lives?
One aspect of the healthcare industry that is very different from others is the fact that you have many people receiving the service without paying for it. Generally speaking emergency rooms can’t really turn anyone away, but many people who visit emergency rooms don’t end up paying for the service themselves. Even if the one receiving treatment doesn’t pay, there is still a cost (nurses’ and doctors’ pay, supply and machine use, as well as medications) that must be paid by someone. When costs of a business go up, business will generally try and pass that cost onto the consumers. So the more people who obtain healthcare services without paying for it, the higher the cost of that service will be, which inevitably leads to increased costs for those who do pay for it.
This phenomenon is not very common in other service industries because generally speaking if you don’t pay for a service you normally don’t receive the service. For example, if you call Dell for tech support but you don’t have an account with them (or you didn’t purchase a Dell product), you generally won’t get any tech support without paying for it. However, it is relatively easy to obtain cable TV for little to no cost simply by splitting your neighbors’ cable signal and running a line to your TV. The difference here is the cable TV signal is already being broadcast whether you get the signal or not, and using the service without paying for it won’t really increase any costs for the cable company. The signal is already there being broadcast whether you pay for cable TV service or not.
Before we decide on a solution to the healthcare problem in the US, can we first agree on what the fundamental problem is? So the question I pose to you is, what is really wrong with the healthcare system, at the core? Would you agree that the rising costs of healthcare is the root of the problem? Please post your comments. Thank you.