On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 2:32 PM, Vitaliy <piclist@maksimov.org> wrote:

> ...Take the $729,000 bill, for example. Just think about it: what
> could the hospital have done to Steve, to rack up such insane bill? Why d=
o
> things cost so much?*
>
> The usual explanation (espoused even by some economists I respect) is tha=
t
> technology is driving up the cost. New machines, new technologies,
> computers
> everywhere. We get better quality care, we are told, that is why healthca=
re
> is more expensive today. This sounds plausible, until you consider that
> everywhere else technology made things *cheaper*: cars, industrial
> automation, cell phones, etc. Home PC prices are falling even though they
> are getting ever more powerful.
>
> I struggled with this question for a while, and it wasn't long ago that I
> understood the reason behind the rising costs: state subsidies.


BINGO!!!


> It may sound
> like a paradox, but you don't need to understand economics beyond the bas=
ic
> law supply&demand to see how this works. When someone else pays for your
> healthcare, you don't care how the money is spent, and neither does your
> doctor, who in fact may have the incentive to prescribe very expensive
> tests
> & procedures even when much cheaper options are available (you would pick
> them yourself, if you were paying for the care with your money). State
> subsidies of healthcare (Medicare, Medicaid) thus create more demand, and
> since the supply of healthcare, prices go through the roof.
>
> If "my" social/economic policies had been in place, everybody would be mo=
re
> prosperous, and healthcare would cost a fraction of what it does today.
> Even
> if Steve was broke, his friends could easily chip in and pay for his
> medical
> bills. It would constitute true charity, as opposed to the phony charity
> which involves doing good at someone else's expense (under the threat of,
> or
> actual use of, violence).
>
> Vitaliy
>
> Right on Mr. V!!!

In the "old days" when my parents were coming along (40s, 50s, 60s), the
only medical insurance available was called Major Medical.  It covered case=
s
where extreme care was needed such as hospitalization.  Then the US Gov't
(was it J. Carter?) put in a wage & price freeze.  So employers began
offering newer types of medical insurance as hiring incentives.  Now,
everyone goes to the doctor for a sniffle or their farts smell funny.
Demand is way up; someone else (employer, insurance co and govt) is paying
for it so demand has gone through the roof.  THAT is the cause of high
medical costs.  Common sense to me...

I have a $10,000 deductible per person in order to afford my monthly
premiums!


>
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