Health Care
The Problem
- Costs are steadily increasing
- More and more cannot afford health insurance
- Those who pay for their health care have to pay for those that don't as well
- Both Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Health Economist Devon Herrick agree that health care costs are expected to continue to rise
- We are facing a shortage of doctors
Why is health care so expensive?
- Health insurance isn't really insurance so why do American's buy it? Because the government incentivizes it through tax breaks.
- The fear of malpractice causes doctors to perform many unneeded tests which account for 26% of the nation's healthcare costs.
- The government is largely responsible for rising health care
costs due to
manipulation of the market by
- Boosting demand by lowering the apparent price of services
- Overbearing mountains of regulation
- Promoting 3rd party payment of even expected routine services
- Raising drug-research expenses
- Imposing coverage mandates on insurers
- Forbidding interstate competition in insurance
- Incentivizing the purchase of insurance
False Solutions
- Socialized medicine - It just doesnt work
- Lenin said “Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state.”
- Don't fall for false statistics. Infant mortality rates are measured differently in different countries. When health economists Robert Ohsfeldt and John Schneider adjusted for these factors, the U.S. had the highest life expectancy of any developed country.
Real Solutions
- Repeal Obamacare
Offer assistance and encouragement to states like Utah who are fighting the healthcare mandate - Allow doctors to choose what care they give
- Remove cost increasing regulations
- Removing the incentive for insurance without raising taxes
- Remove federal coverage mandates for insurance
- Allow interstate competition in insurance