Mark & Milton Fix Health Care

If Americans weren't averse to creating a two-tier health care system, this national uninsured crisis could be solved in a snap. We don’t change the whole damn system ( at least not yet ) to insure that everyone lives in a nice house, has a nice car, can afford to shop at Sacks, or eat at Ruth's Chris. Why do it for health care? Does everyone deserve to go to the Mayo Clinic? Does everyone need an MRI if their knee hurts? My nose has always been too big. Federally funded Viagra, anyone? If we just created a voucher for poor or selectively qualified uninsured people to go and purchase whatever health care plan they wished and we deregulated health care insurance* so insurance companies could create in their coverages what the market dictated, presto – crisis la morte . The real free society-threatening problem is that those ‘universal advocates’ can’t live with well-to-do people having better health care than less-to-do people. The central issue isn’t whether the unfortunate have a decent, basic health care package, but whether it covers birth control pills, abortion, cell-phone elbow and sex change operations; it‘s not whether they have a roof over their head but whether they have a respectable condo near the public transit line; it’s not whether they get enough food, it’s whether the food stamps are good for t-bone steak and the delivery system doesn’t embarrass them ( we make them look like credit cards now ); it’s not whether everyone gets an adequate education, it’s whether the not-so-quick are interred with the smart kids so they don’t develop low self esteem. But I digress. If we gave every poor person a voucher** for $3000/yr to buy whatever health care they could buy it would cost a fraction of what a national health care system would cost and, not only that, the price of health care for everyone would come down as it would create an honest to God new market necessitating insurance companies to compete for those new customers.

The bitter irony is that the same Cadillac benefits that our benign dictocrats have added to state minimum insurance package requirements which has relentlessly driven up the cost of health insurance will be the same ones that will be rationed or cut when national health care is implemented. It’s been all too easy for the guv to mandate what’s covered in private carriers' packages when they didn’t have to pay. When it's on the taxpayers dime Americans might be surprised what Big Brother deems a necessary test or procedure for poor, old Aunt Tillie.

There are few ways the world has discovered to lower costs. The only sure-fire ways I know are price controls/rationing and free market competition/ increased productivity. If you don’t understand why prices for health care would plummet if fee for service were the only option, go back and retake ‘Real World 101’ at your local community college. In a free market every individual does their own cost benefit analysis before purchasing anything. What doesn’t work is ferreted out because over time no one is willing to pay for it with their own money. And what does get ferreted out will have private doctors and institutions competing for that business. Not to mention that when uncle is deciding what gets covered and what doesn’t, it inevitably becomes politicized. He/she that makes the most noise gets coverage; like breast cancer research getting tons more funding even though diabetes affects and kills multitudes more people. Spending decisions become dictated by the ‘cause de jour’; in other words what makes the politicians look good. Taking health politicization to its’ illogical extremes, the end result will be a society with the most caring, concerned, selfless and sadly beloved politicians the world has ever seen and a populace waiting agonizingly in line for hip surgeries and bypasses. ( So what did Obama actually mean when he said this week, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet?’ I’m afraid to guess! )

All I can say is, if the fundamental requirement for dealing with all human ills is that the solution must be applied equally and unilaterally, we’re doomed before we start because need is endless. The good becomes the enemy of the perfect. Sort of like ‘save everybody or save nobody’. Well, my teacher, Professor Hardnoks, told me in ‘Real World 101’ that if the boat’s sinking, it’s women and children first; not let’s tinker and talk till we figure out how to keep everyone from drowning.

*Deregulation would require competitive bidding across state lines. What idiot(s) decided limiting access by state was a good idea? Eee Gad!

** One would hope that even the left and right could agree that if people get the best health care available for nothing that would leave no incentive to work hard in life and contribute to an upgrade in benefits. Where are Milton Friedman’s public policy heirs? If we ever needed them, we need them now.

M.D.T.