America's Irrational Health Care Status Quo

If you were the Founding Father of a new nation, the American health care system would be instructive as the worst example around.
America's really dumb system illustrates what NOT to do and looks like this on paper:

1. Have government insure the highest risk population -- seniors, veterans, indigents.
2. Leave the "gravy" (or healthy, younger) to profit-making private sector insurance companies.
3. Forbid large entities, such as Medicaid or Medicare, from getting volume discounts for drugs even though foreign governments have negotiated discounts from American pharma companies for years.
4. Allow doctors to completely control the system, allow them to featherbed as well as to own hospitals, clinics and other services so that they can then send their patients to these entities in order to leverage their financial take.
5. Let doctors be self-governing labor monopolies and set their own ever-escalating fees.
6. Let the labor monopoly over-service and under-service, based on their profit motive at the time.
7. Let the medical establishment game the system by permitting bribes to Congress and Senate to conspire by enhancing their profits through the use of lobbying, campaign contributions and gold-plated medical care for cronies, family, friends and assorted others.
8. Lastly, completely ignore any of the innovations and benefits that all the other developed nations in the world have devised and that allows those systems to deliver better and cheaper medical care to all their residents.

As an American living in Canada, it's really embarrassing that a country as smart and rich as the United States cannot get out from under the world's worst medical system. Why?

Comments

[hdtracy]

I am Canadian and a proud supporter of my h/c system. The bickering, unsubstantiated attacks, & scare tactics have fueled such dissension and confusion that it has critically hindered the progress of much needed US healthcare reform.

A while ago, a Canadian economist specializing in health care, reported that PER CAPITA, the US government spent more money on h/c than Canada did. At that time, Canada's population was approximately 30 million while the US was about 300 million. Canada, while spending less per capita, was able to cover 100% of it's population, while the US was barely covering 50%.

President Obama stated that adopting a single-payer system like Canada's "would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have." There is no perfect system in any country, including Canada's. However, the vast majority of Canadians proudly defend our h/c, so I'd like to understand what are the obstacles in moving forward with single-payer reform in the US? Wouldn't this guarantee nearly the 40 americans that are uninsured in the US due to financial difficulties, pre-existing conditions, etc? Seems to me it's a no-brainer.

[moleif]

The system was hi-jacked long ago by special interests and powerful lobby groups. Today, there are just too many people who benefit from the system the way it is--doctors, lawyers, pharma, insurance etc. I don't think the American people will ever win back control over it.

[hrdtsk]

"Let doctors be self-governing labor monopolies and set their own ever-escalating fees."

Not true

Doctor's Fees are negotiated ahead of time with the insurance carrier.

For Medicare and Medicaid, the fees are a take it or leave it proposition. No negotiating allowed. Because of the low fees many doctors are opting out of seeing Medicare and especially Medicaid patients.