Posted BY: Kara | NwoRpeort
This article was originally published by Antony Sammeroff at The Mises Institute.
In 2008, the State of Oregon inadvertently ran a randomized health insurance experiment. They decided they had just enough money in their annual budget to give Medicaid coverage to an additional ten thousand citizens randomly chosen via a lottery. While there was no improvement in health outcomes, hospital admissions increased by 30 percent, outpatient visits by 35 percent, and ER visits by 40 percent. The experiment cost a lot of money—36 percent more—with no tangible benefit.
Amazingly, there is not a strong relationship between healthcare spending and health outcomes. America spends almost $4 trillion a year on healthcare, around twice what most other developed nations spend per head, and approximately half of it is taxpayer funded. With only 4 percent of the world’s population, the US accounts for half of the pharmaceuticals consumed worldwide. If more healthcare were the answer, the US would be the healthiest country on the planet. Yet while Japan’s and Singapore’s healthcare expenditures per head are only a fraction of those of the US, Japanese and Singaporeans live over five years longer than Americans.
Trending: Ten Ways to Strike Back
Healthcare is a rigged game. If you look a bit closer, lobbyists seem to have enough power to eliminate hospitals’ competition for healthcare. When I was younger there were clinics who had the ability to help the poor. Slowly they have used torte laws and insurance costs to eliminate less costly options. Part of it is the move of government into the arena. Hospitals now seem to grow endlessly but outside of them getting healthcare gets more costly. At my current company it now costs $5.00 per hour plus the insurance you opt for. Somehow now, if you opt for dental or vision insurance it is that cost per week plus the $5.00 per hour. Our solution? It is to go without health insurance.
Get government out of the issue and allow doctors and nurses to offer clinics for health care options to the poor. Get charity back into the picture by removing the restrictions. Stop the government cash fortifying hospitals’ growth without competition.
In Alabama you cannot get eye glasses made unless you have a current eye exam. The poor are now stuck with supporting eye doctors if their glasses break even if it’s a good prescription. The law has decided how they need to proceed. Why’s that??