Bush economist says US health care system in big trouble

[jay gw]

Current issue of the Economist

The share of workers who receive health insurance from their own employer has fallen from almost 70% in the late 1970s to around 50% today. In the past five years, the proportion of firms offering medical benefits has fallen from 70% to 60%, with the steepest decline among small firms and those employing the low-skilled.

Mr Hubbard, former Bush economic advisor and author of Healthy, Wealthy and Wise says “The private market is broken.”


Current issue of Stanford U's Hoover Institution

After a century of U.S. innovations in medical procedures, technologies, and pharmaceuticals, the quality of American medical care is the envy of the world. Yet our health care system is in deep trouble. Annual health care costs are posting double-digit increases, the number of uninsured is at an all-time high, and public satisfaction is sinking rapidly.

[schplurg]

Wow, what groundbreaking information!
Yes, it is in trouble. Is that all this article has to say?

Just one point, since I can't read this entire article...it isn't an employers responsibility to provide health care for it's employees. Perhaps this way of thinking is becoming outdated?

Mr Hubbard, former Bush economic advisor and author of Healthy, Wealthy and Wise says “The private market is broken.” Who broke it?

[Solitaire]

Who broke it?

The government. Har-Har! :D

[Beerina]

As technology advances, medical care will get more and more expensive since more and more things can be done that previously could not be.

Look at the expenses the government is having on injured soldiers -- far higher than previous wars, since they are now saving people with severe injuries, injuries that are life-long, who previously would have just died, end of story, end of costs.

The problem is that, government, being what it is, will seek a command-and-control "solution". I.e. attempt to lower costs by fixing prices. Something has to give in that case and it will be research. Private research. This will slow the development of newer technologies, and the quality of care will lag further and further behind where it otherwise would be. Ultimately, people with "free health care" under such a system will be living more miserable lives than they otherwise would be, and dying sooner.

Two parallel worlds, one institutes price controls. Fifty years later, one is bragging that their iron lung treatments are free to all citizens. Guess which one?

Dawkins was wrong. It wasn't just religion that leads good people to do bad things. Its the feelilng that you know what is right, and you're so damned sure about it, you're willing to impose it on everyone else.