Federal Government causes high health care costs

Government is the problem, not the solution, in ever escalating health care costs.

My only cousin is dying of cancer. She wanted to spend her final days in Hospice. I called to get the details: “$865 a day; unless you have insurance in which case it might be as little as $160 a day. If she’s covered under Medicare, they pay 100%” “What if she is paying for this herself?” I asked. “$865 a day.”

I went to my dentist and asked for a quote for restoring my aging teeth to top condition; fillings, caps, bridges; the works. He quoted over $16,000 but told me that was the “official cost” but if I was paying for it out of pocket it would be only $8000.

I sleep with a BPAP machine to counteract my Sleep Apnea. After several years, the rubber straps for the face mask stretched too much to make a proper seal. I asked the medical supply company how much for a replacement: “We bill $45 but the insurance company only has to pay $20 so you have no out-of-pocket expense for it”.

Everywhere I turn in health care I encounter wildly divergent pricing between quote and actual, depending on if, or what, insurance covers the expense.

If I multiply these numbers by 300 Million Americans it’s easy to see how health care is an entitlement that will bring America to financial ruin.

In all of the federal health care discussions I haven’t heard the first word about this egregious disparity in the pricing of health care services. Why do they exist? What can be done to eliminate them? The biggest influence is government subsidies: Medicare and Medicaid.

Why is Hospice $865 a day?: because Medicare will pay that. Why is dentistry $16000?: because government health care will pay that. Why is a rubber strap $45?: because Medicare will pay that.

Remove federal subsidies and the cost of health care will plummet like a rock. That’s the beauty of a free market: competition won’t tolerate capricious pricing or inefficient processes.

Lasik eye surgery and breast augmentation surgery are two excellent examples of the continuous improvement in quality accompanied by continuous reduction in pricing for these non-covered procedures.

If we remove government subsidies and competition-restricting federal regulations from insurance and medical services; get the government out of health care; and transition health care coverage from employers (itself a result of government interference during WWII wage and price controls) to individuals, health care costs will reduce and become manageable.

If the federal government would replace all existing subsidies and non-value added government regulations with an individual tax credit sufficient to cover a reasonable annual insurance premium (based on the net negotiated price, not the government subsidized price) the savings to tax payers would be astronomical, and the insurance and medical services industries would be scrambling to provide top quality health care at a competitive cost (within the tax credit level).

This same solution could be applied to replacing Medicare with private insurance.

Of course, without the ability to manipulate government subsidies, I’m sure that political contributions to our elected representatives from insurance and health care providers would be dramatically reduced, and I believe that explains why it won’t happen.