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Lies That are Told and Misperceptions

What makes health care so expensive? You would think that an actuary that dedicates his life to understanding how to calculate risk and cost all day long would be able to answer that question. Likewise, a huge insurance company that has been in business for many years would also have the answer to the question. How about congress? Well, they probably do, but they aren't going to tell you the correct answer. I am personally appalled that none of these people can come up with a decent answer.

One senator’s office I called said, “I have no idea why healthcare is expensive.” This was their health care specialist!

More enraging than that is that fact that a lot of the "answers" seem to be coming from lobbyist organizations that lead you astray with half-truths.

Here are some of the lies being used about health care costs.

  1. It’s because of all the latest technology. We can’t afford all these advancements.
  2. It’s that nobody wants to become a doctor.
  3. Doctors have to do too many things. We need to offload everything to less qualified people.
  4. It’s because doctors have so much debt out of school they have to charge a lot.
  5. There needs to be more competition amongst insurance companies.
  6. It’s all the preventative care that is in the affordable health act.
  7. It’s because the computer systems aren’t working together properly.
  8. It’s because people don’t care about the cost.
  9. Quality is so important we shouldn’t look at cost. It’s counter- productive.
  10. It’s because of big government
  11. It’s because of too little government.

There are a million things to improve, but all of these kinds of arguments ignore all the main points about cost. High prices are caused because of one reason: MONOPOLIES IN HEALTH CARE. This is the only reason. Anything else is a red herring.

So, any cost question you might have directly relates to how to deal with a monopoly. Here are some ideas that would help.

  1. Use anti-trust laws to break up the monopolies. Stop mergers of large health companies.
  2. Force monopolies to create transparent pricing for consumers.
  3. Allow more doctors to be trained for the market place.
  4. Stop allowing the monopolies to exclude smaller clinics and hospitals.
  5. Make incentives for real competition by allowing smaller clinics to compete on price.
  6. Create a single payer system.

Half-truths have led many of us down the wrong path to fixing health care. For example, it’s true that it costs more to use the latest technology. However, it’s not true that it’s one of the main drivers of cost. It’s also not true that nobody wants to be a doctor. The real truth is that the system is set up to be anti-competitive. Healthcare pricing would easily be cut in half simply by using a single payer system and increasing the supply.



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