Susan Wrote:Ken,
What are your ideas on how to fix the health care crisis and the ridiculous insurance costs?
Honestly, I'm stumped.
Susan (who has had many a nightmarish health insurance experience)
With insurance, it would be competition. It's virtually impossible to start up a new insurance company to compete with existing companies. And this isn't just health insurance either -- it's any kind of insurance.
Existing insurance companies have a virtual monopoly on the industry because of "regulation." Government regulations are actually good for the regulated industries because they make it almost impossible for new companies to arise and offer new services. Sure the regulations make things far more expensive to the customer, but they also guarantee that the existing businesses will not go out of business if they don't offer good services.
As far as medical care is concerned, government regulations make doctors and hospitals far more expensive than they would otherwise be. Compliance with government mandated paperwork costs money . . . lots of money! I understand that doctors spend just as much of their time filling out government paperwork as they do with their patients. This doubles the cost of a visit to the doctor.
Pharmaceutical companies are the same. They not only have a monopoly on the industry, the FDA raises the cost of developing new medicines to astronomical heights. A minor example would be when drug companies discovered that a small daily dose of aspirin would help to prevent heart attacks; it took them eleven years -- and goodness knows how many dollars -- to get "permission" from the FDA to advertise that fact. Compliance with FDA regulations have caused untold deaths and a tremendous increase in the costs of medicines.
Lower expenses and let new companies come into the fold and costs would drop significantly.
Competition always raises quality and lowers costs.
Ken V.