Friday, March 02, 2007

Health Care

Rae Ann had some interesting things to say about universal health care in America in this post. Which has really had me thinking about a lot of the problems people face.

I got to talking with my dad specifically about the health care issue and right in the middle of our conversation an Aricept commercial came on tv. Yeah, it's great for alzheimers if you don't mind risking internal bleeding. My dad summed the whole conversation up like this:

"The medical and pharmacy system in America is like taking your car to the mechanic because you've noticed a knocking in the engine. The mechanic says 'yeah, we can fix that' and then he sells you a pair of ear plugs."

1 comment:

Rae Ann said...

Thanks for your comments over there. I think that my primary concern is with the cost of health care and how the system is so basically unfair. Now, I know that "unfair" is kind of a liberal leaning word and concept, but if you think of it in business terms then it makes more sense.

Your dad is right, of course, because health care is a big business that really isn't interested in curing people so much as making more and more money from them. And how else to insure a constant income than by telling everyone how sick they are and then offering "bandaids" instead of real cures?

If we look at the way that health care is priced and so on it is totally screwed upside down. In most businesses prices are generally higher for higher quality. A business that offers crap for a champaign price won't last long. But with health care some of us pay champaign prices for standard hamburger care while others pay much less (or nothing) for the exact same care. That's a problem and is not a true reflection of the capitalist democratic way of life.

As for the government getting into the health care business (even more than it already is), I do think that's a terrible idea. If nothing else, there should be some kind of "reorganization" or something like that prompted by the government. I can't think of specific examples at the moment, but I'm sure there have been instances in the past when unfair business practices were addressed by government action without the government actually getting into the business.

However, I'm not saying that all health care should cost the same or that the government should have control over pricing or anything. I'm just saying that as the system is now, it isn't fair in the most capitalist sense. Another solution might be for some company to come along and revolutionize the health care industry, but they might need some government encouragement to take on such a big endeavor.

I might make some of this into another post. Thanks for helping me think it out!