Friday, March 21, 2008

A democrat's wish list Part 2

The next wish on Rahm Emanual's list is universal health care, or if universal is too pricey, a half way step of health care for children.
Make more tax money available for health care and we will spend it, all of it, and cry for more. The US spends 16 percent of GNP on health care which is four times military spending. American made products cost 16% more just to pay the worker's health care. We already spend too much on health care. The cost is wrecking the US economy.
As recently as 1980, US health care was only 8 % of GNP. Is our health any better in 2008 after doubling the money put into it? I think not. Rather than pouring more money into the health care sector we need to cut the cost back to where it was in 1980. Or even lower.
Fingers have been pointed at the legal community for malpractice suits, the drug companies for outrageous prices, legislatures for loading health insurance with mandatory coverages and forbidding competition, and health insurance companies for paperwork that makes the La Brea tar pits look transparent.
So far the doctors and their union have escaped much criticism, but they bear a substantial responsibility for the explosion of cost. They prescribe expensive treatments freely, thinking that the insurance companies will pay. They demand expensive technology that does little, such as the fetal heart rate monitors which have done nothing to improve infant mortality.

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