Prescription for Healthcare

The debate about healthcare has been going on for some time and will continue long after this election. Unfortunately, most of the dialog has focused on who should pay for it and how. And while I agree that there are some artificial constraints that pervert the payment system which should be addressed (read more freedom and choice=less government), but the underlying issue driving this problem is skyrocketing cost. Without addressing this underlying cost problem any reforms dealing only with payment structure are…spitting… in the wind.
One factor in cost is the high price of labor in the United States, driven to a large part by the labor union movement. It’s fine for people to organize and negotiate for the best salaries and benefits they can get. But they must then understand that these costs of business must be passed along in the price of the product or service of their industry; in this case healthcare. As William F. Buckley, Jr. would exhort, “He who says A must say B.”
Another factor is the expense of discovering and developing new medications and treatments. This is a very lengthy and costly process driven partly by government regulation and oversight (which does help to protect us). It is also driven by the fact that the easy drugs and treatments have already been discovered. The new ones are more complex and much more costly to bring to market.
Finally, is the cost of liability protection built into every level of the healthcare system. This includes doctors’ malpractice insurance and product liability protection for pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment manufacturers and hospitals. These costs are driven to astronomical levels by trial lawyers and the tort system. Fair compensation for bona fide errors is one thing; headline grabbing settlements are quite another.
So while we evaluate better ways of paying the healthcare bill, let’s not lose sight of the factors driving the rising cost. Labor unions, government regulation of research and development of new drugs and treatments and liability tort reform must be part of the equation or we are simply putting a bandaid on a gapping wound.