Health Care and profit

As details of the economic stimulus emerge it seems that something on the order of 20%, some $66 billion is to be spent on education, labor, and health. A considerable portion of that is reportedly being spent on providing 'health coverage' to more people, particularly children.

That set me to thinking about the way we pay for health coverage in the United States today. According to the WHO, the US spends the most per person per year on health coverage, some $6000/person/year. In the WHO ranking of health by country the US ranks, would you believe, 37th. France ranks 1st and spends somewhat less than half what the US spends! It's clear that something's broken. But what?

I believe that a considerable portion of the problem is because much of our health system is driven by profit.

Please understand, I'm not a socialist. Far from it, I believe that if you want an economic system that produces goods and services at low cost a free market economy is what you want. It works great for creating cheap shirts, cars, and all manner of goods. But is health care a 'good' in the sense of a shirt or car? I think not. Rather I think it is part of the 'general welfare' provided for in the founding documents of our country. Should health care be driven by profit or should it be a right in a just society? It think it should be a right.

It is interesting that as a society we recognize that some things should NOT be driven by profit. For example, we recognize that all of us should be educated. And although there are large disparities in education in the country, education is not per se a profit driven enterprise but rather a universal right. There are other examples such as defense, police protection, fire protection, and the like. My point here is that as a society we already recognize that some things are so fundamental to societies well being or so dangerous when turned over to profit driven entities that we do not allow them to be profit driven.

Consider, for example, the issue of profit making hospitals. Does the profit they make in any way improve the health of their customers? I think not. Rather it simply adds to the overall cost of health without actually improving health in any way. Much the same can be said for health insurance companies.

By basing much of our health care in the profit driven sector, we drive up the cost of health without actually improving health. That's part of the reason we are first in spending and 37th in health. There are clearly different models. Much of Western Europe spends far less than the US and has far better health care.

While we go off spending a good deal of money propping up the existing profit driven system, perhaps, just perhaps, we might want to take a moment to consider different approaches to health care modeled on some of the much more effective systems!