George Carlin on Education and the owners of America

[SentToStud]

Originally Posted by SCUDSBROTHER

We are already spending more than enough on healthcare.It's not like more money needs to go in to fund it.We just need to get lawyers,and insurance companies' hands out of our healthcare money.We have the funds,but we piss it away by giving it to these 2 groups.You would rather do that then have the Gov't run it,and so we will continue to have poor healthcare in this country.

Lawyers and ins companies have, in the long view, have little to do with the cost of health care. This is the rhetoric of politicians who every 3-4 years say they can solve HC costs by "taking on" these two groups (plus pharma) and making things more efficient." If you made medical lawyers and ins companies non-profit, you'd have a modest one-time drop in costs, but the rate of medical inflation would be unchanged.

Costs are high here for two reasons.

1. The US is where the vast majority of research and innovation take place. That is costly. It takes place here because 55% of health care cost is borne privately (gov't programs mae up 45%). You just do not get the level of R&D in other nations as we have here becuase there is no $$ for it. People complain that the pay $1 for a Crestor pill that costs $.01 to make. This ignores the fact that the while that pill they took may have cost $.01, the FIRST Crestor pill cost $100 million.

2. In the US, we spend FAR greater amounts on treating people with advanced disease and illness. 97% of our HC $$'s go to treating 50% of our population. 25% goes to treating our sickest 1%. It's much more likely that people in the US have access to the most advanced and costly treatments than anywhere else.

This is why it costs so much here... Innovation and the willingness to make advanced/costly treatments available widely. Both occure because of private funding and our willingness (so far) to pay for it.

Until you hear real conversation about reducing innovation and making advanced treatment availablilty subject to cost/benefit type analysis, you won't have any basis for substaintial change.

Whether any of this is good/bad/etc,... is your call. It is pretty sad that despite spending more per acpita on HC than any other nation, we are no healthier than many nations.

KAiser non-profit has some good white papers. kff.org.