Where's the outcry for free market competition in health care?

[livingonearth]

Our friends on the right say "let the free market take care of everything".
That would be great, but unfortunately free market forces don't have a chance when it comes to most health care in America. In a competitive free market prices are able to adjust and become affordable; but instead we hear of things like hospitals charging $10.00 - $15.00 each for tablets of tylenol, and overnight stays priced in the thousands.

There are two main reasons why free market forces don't come into play with health care. One of them can't be helped, but one of them can. First, because of it's nature, health care is rather hard to shop for. Many times a person doesn't even know what they are suffering from. Tests and lab work are often required. Just coming up with a proper diagnosis can sometimes cost a fortune, a second opinion only adds to the cost. Fixing your body just doesn't work the same way as fixing your car- where you get three estimates from different repair shops and take the best price.

The second reason free market competition is stifled in health care (and the real problem) is that large corporate insurance companies own the hospitals and control the prices. And, unfortunately for the rest of us, there is absolutely no incentive for them to ever let costs go down. It is not in their best interest; for if health care prices were to ever become affordable people wouldn't buy as much insurance. Owning and controlling both ends of the health care system is great for the corporations: they can charge you a premium, make you meet a deductible, deny care when they want, and then pay themselves for providing care in their own hospitals.

There is, however, one area of medicine where costs are coming down due to competition and free market forces. These are things such as LASIK eye surgery and other procedures to correct vision. Because they are elective the corporate insurance companies do not sell coverage for nor try to control the clinics where these types of procedures are performed. With the insurance companies out of the picture true free market forces have a chance to work. Wouldn't it be great if this were the case with all medical costs?

Where is the outcry from all the free market loving Republican Conservatives on this flagrant abuse of the free market system?

[Warren Stupidity]

1. They are a bunch of lying hypocrites. But healthcare is a public good.

And should not be provided through a market based system.

[Warpy]

2. You forgot the fact that illness is not a consumer decision

Working people can't choose the occasional head cold and leave the expensive illnesses requiring transplantation to the overclass. Whether or not we get sick is out of our control and depends entirely on genetic and environmental factors. We can control some environmental factors like avoiding cigarettes and washing our hands frequently, but this will only delay or reduce illnesses. If we are human beings, we will get sick and we won't be able to choose the severity, the timing, or much of anything else.

To listen to free marketeers, you'd think someone suffering crushing chest pain would call around to the various hospitals and ambulance services getting the best deal on transport and angioplasty instead of dialing 911 and hoping he holds out until the paramedics arrive. The free market fantasy of "choosing" the best deal is the best way to end up dead.

The overall health of a country's people is also a security issue. A sick, debilitated population is not going to be in much of a position to support a defensive war effort should the need arise. Contagious illness doesn't respect class or the walls some hide behind, either. Having all those self important owners and leaders sick from an easily preventable and curable illness spread by the rest of us who have such poor access to care that we've gone untreated might be the only lesson in public health they'll respond to.

Clearly, health care doesn't belong in the consumer marketplace for all the reasons in the OP and above. The sooner the country wakes up and badgers its elected representatives to snap out of their haze of invulnerability and act on this issue to institute single payer, the better off this country as a whole will be and the more competitive with other countries it will be.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. One of the local Big Three insurance companies in this area

has ads up around town, urging people to "educate themselves" about how much various procedures cost at different hospitals.

Yeah, what's next? Coupons in the Sunday paper for mammograms and colonoscopies?

[Double T]

3. NON-PROFIT HMOs with their executives paid a living wage.

THAT must be the future for Universal Health Care for ALL US Citizens.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. I'm against any system that includes HMOs

Why the hell would I want a "health manager" deciding which treatments are best for me? That's a decision for myself and my doctor to make. HMOs simply add a layer of bureaucracy, and each layer increases costs.

[Double T]

6. NON-PROFIT HMO doesn't have a 'say' in what is or isn't done..........

decisions are made by you and your doctor THEN NON-PROFIT HMO is TOLD decision. NON-PROFIT HMO's ONLY job is to pay the bills and keep records.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

7. Then it isn't an HMO

An HMO by definition manages the health care of individuals in their group. What would work best is a single government agency that sets prices and pays the bills. There's no need for a pyramid of insurance companies, billing agencies, HMOs, doctors, collection firms, and the other entities that comprise the bureaucratic layer cake that makes up our health care system.

Watch the movie Sicko for some examples of really well planned out government health care systems (especially in Great Britain).