Health Care Reform in a Chart

If this doesn't give you a reason to question government controlled health care, you can't be swayed.

How the Government Does Health Care

As we discuss changes in our health care system, it might be instructive to look at how our government already handles health care. Our government already is in charge of two systems: the Veterans Administration health care system and the Indian Health Service.

The Indian Health Service (IHS) serves our American Indian population. Our American Indian population is probably the only group in the U.S. to actually be getting even less healthy. Diabetes and substance abuse rates have risen severely in the past few years. The IHS is well known for providing care until they run out of money for the year and then closing their clinics for the rest of the year. (Link 1) (Link 2)

The VA system has been in the news quite a bit over the past few years. Stories of poor care and horrible conditions have been common. As a doctor who worked in a VA, I can tell you that it is a very scary system. Appointments usually take most of a day and care is definitely restricted. It is a shame that our military receives such poor care. (Link 1) (Link 2) (Link 3)

I am not even covering the county and state health care systems. These systems are downright shameful.

So, how about that government health care?

In The Beginning...

Back in the 1940’s and 50’s, insurance was very different than it is now. If you saw the doctor, you either paid in cash or were billed.The patient would then file a claim with their insurance company. Since people were paying out of their own pockets, there was pressure to keep costs down and people would only go to the doctor if they were very sick.

In the 1960’s, President Johnson and Congress brought us the Great Society acts. One of these acts brought us Medicare. Another spawned Medicaid. For the first time, government put a value on the different things a doctor might do. The government also set standards for what they would pay. This fundamentally changed the practice of medicine. Now doctors had a standard for what they could charge a patient. This led to the beginning of skyrocketing prices. The Medicare price became the minimum price charged to patients. By placing values on what a doctor might do, the government also placed premium value on procedures that could be easily verified over simply discussing problems with a patient. Procedures, such as gallbladder removals and colonoscopies, became much more lucrative. Therefore, more people did more procedures and more med students went into specialties where procedures were common. Graduating students avoided primary care like the plague.

Over the ensuing years, we have gradually increased the number of people covered by Medicare and Medicaid to the point where over forty percent of all health care expenses in the United States are paid for by the U.S. Government. Prices are shooting up and the number of procedures being performed each year are at all time highs. Meanwhile, there is a severe shortage of primary care doctors. These are the unexpected consequences of government intervention in medicine. The grand plan of providing the poor and elderly affordable health care went horribly wrong. Imaginge what they could do with the whole enchilada!

Actually, there are examples of health care systems run by the U.S. government. I will cover them in my next post.

Health Care Reform is a Scam!

I know that’s kind of hard, but it is true. I realize that we need to figure out how to handle the growing number of uninsured in this country. It is a crisis. Still, you don’t destroy something to fix it. President Obama’s plan will rapidly move us to the Canadian system of health care. He says it won’t, but he has been know to say one thing and do the exact opposite. I will cover this in great detail in future posts.

here’s 2 great links from the Heritage Foundation:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm2515.cfm

http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm2516.cfm