2000's
Health care costs are on the rise again. Medicare is unsustainable under the present structure and must be "rescued". Changing demographics of the workplace lead many to believe the employer-based system of insurance can't last. Direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals and medical devices is on the rise. National health care expenditures are 17.6 percent of the Gross National Product by 2009. Obama is about to pass healthcare legislation which will result in a dramatic increase in costs.
Government did not get involved in healthcare until 1965, when Medicare and Medicaid were passed by a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress. The charts below paint a picture of waste, mismanagement, administrative nightmares, and out of control costs. Annual national health expenditures have risen from $50 billion in 1960 to $2.5 trillion in 2009. Government intrusion and control is the single biggest explanation for this disastrous result. The policies instituted by the government through Medicare, Medicaid, and HMO laws, along with mandating that insurance companies meet 50 separate state requirements to do business have bastardized the free market. There is no competition between doctors, hospitals, or insurance companies. The incentives are all geared towards charging more for services. Introducing a government run insurance option will now decrease competition and drive people into the government option. Employers will be dropping employees from their insurance plans by the millions. A new bloated government bureaucracy will "surprisingly get out of control. Price fixing by government will drive service levels downward and rationing of care will be the result. Prepare to wait months for knee surgery. They'll get to you as soon as your appendix bursts.
Dr. Ron Paul describes how government has already destroyed our healthcare system, so the massive overhaul proposed by the Democrats will surely blow up in Americans' faces again:
"We should remember that HMOs did not arise because of free-market demand, but rather because of government mandates. The HMO Act of 1973 requires all but the smallest employers to offer their employees HMO coverage, and the tax code allows businesses " but not individuals " to deduct the cost of health insurance premiums. The result is the illogical coupling of employment and health insurance, which often leaves the unemployed without needed catastrophic coverage. While many in Congress are happy to criticize HMOs today, the public never hear how the present system was imposed upon the American people by federal law. As usual, government intervention in the private market failed to deliver the promised benefits and caused unintended consequences, but Congress never blames itself for the problems created by bad laws. Instead, we are told more government " in the form of "universal coverage " is the answer. But government already is involved in roughly two-thirds of all health care spending, through Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs.
In 1960, 5.9% of costs were incurred for Administration and Gov't and 2.5% for Research. In 2004, 10.3% of our costs were related to Administration and Gov't and 2.1% for Research. We spend vastly more on paper pushing and government regulations and less on research and care. The FDA government bureaucratic jungle imposes billions in useless costs on the developers of every new drug. This money goes to lawyers and compliance experts, not research scientists. Government thrives while average Americans pay and suffer.
"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats, procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.
Thomas Sowell
Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a man who has delivered 4,000 babies into this world, has experienced the pre-government market and the post government control of medical care in America. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid are inflicting their socialist fantasy theories on America. Ron Paul has real life experience. Who should you trust? His view couldn't be any clearer:
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