In 1950, the average American spent $500 on healthcare (2006 inflation-adjusted dollars) representing 5% of GDP. In 2006, the average American spent $7,026 comprising 16% of GDP.
Yes, we are spending more on health care than 50 years ago.
However, it is of dire importance that we consider the following realities:
·During the course of the 20th Century, life expectancy increased by 30 years.
·Between 1950 and 2000, the death rate from heart disease decreased by 59%, and from 1993-2000, the rate dropped another 22%
· In 1900, a male had an 18% chance of dying by age 1, but in 2005, the mortality rate didn’t reach 18% until age 62.
Yes, we are paying 14 times as much on health care as was spent in 1950, but in my opinion, we are receiving an amazing return. The fact of the matter is: we pay more because it is worth it.
In a time when life-saving advances are made in medicine at an unprecedented rate, society must realize that these advances come with a cost. Consider cardiac care: pacemakers cost roughly between $20-25,000 and a bypass surgery costs tens of thousands of dollars. However, we're talking about several years added to a human life. In considering the low prices promised by socialized medicine, the cost isn't low if you end up paying with your life.
Even still, the amount spent on health care comprises only 5.4% of the average household income.
Consider this breakdown of the costs for an average American family:
· Housing: 40.8%
· Transportation: 18.3%
· Food: 18.2%
· Health care: 5.4%
· Clothing: 4.5%
Though there are many inefficiencies driving the costs of health care up, there are more sensible ways of reform than resorting to a nationalized health care system.
True: We must keep health care costs in perspective.
False: We’re spending too much on health care.
Facts and figures taken from studies cited in Sally Pipes' The Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide.
Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP—all three are inefficient and unsuccessful government-run healthcare programs created for providing proper care to the underprivileged and elderly. The suggested remedy to our "failing system" is to place full control of America’s healthcare into the already inefficient and unqualified hands of the federal government.
If 60% of the healthcare economy is already run by the government, then placing the other 40% of our system into the hands of the feds is ludicrous!
Take a look at these facts:
· Medicare wastes$1 out of every $3 while rationing care & denying medical claims at twice the rate of private insurers. It will take a 6.4% payroll tax to keep the program afloat by 2017. If someone makes a modest $30,000 per year, that's an additional $1920 in taxes per year!
· Because of low reimbursement costs for doctors and hospitals, 1 in 3 seniors are struggling to find a new doctor. In California, $45 billion was shifted to private payers & hospitals to compensate for unpaid Medicare costs while $738 million in charges were paid by the private sector in Washington state to make up for underpayments by Medicare and Medicaid in 2004.
· For veterans, claims take between 127 and 177 days to process—well above private industry average: 89.5%.
Are these federally mandated programs running efficiently? I’ll leave the answer up to you.
Would a single payer (the government) be able to effectively negotiate prices?
Pipes, in her book The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide, presents an example from a previous attempt, and failure, by our government to do exactly this by eliminating the middle-man:
During World War II, price controls were placed on a wide range of goods and services. As a result, a lucrative black market emerged for everything from cars to underwear, and businesses that didn’t go underground cut their costs by lowering their quality. Consumer Reports, in a 1943 study, tested 20 candy bars and found the 19 had shrunk in size compared to the previous year.
There is only one area in which price controls prove effective: limiting innovation. By cutting costs, research will most certainly be cut too resulting in detrimental effects for health care. All we have to do is take a look at the state of our European counterparts. Here are a few simple facts on cancer patients that Pipes provides:
· For 13 of the 16 most common cancers, Americans have a higher survival rate across the board.
· Among men, an American has a 20% better chance of living 5 years after diagnosis.
· American women have a 7.2% better chance of living 5 years after cancer diagnosis.
Maybe these statistics are why tens of thousands of Europeans flee to America for advanced or sophisticated procedures unavailable, or rather rationed, in their own country.
Health care is like food, shelter and clothing: They are each critical to our survival but are not to be guaranteed by government. The problem is that many Americans have created a false reality in which they place their “inalienable rights.”
If government health care is the answer, why don’t we put the feds in charge of providing a house for every homeless American too?
True: The American health care system is in need of reform.
False: Government provided health care will prove most efficient reform.
The Educational Policy Conference will be held in St. Louis, February 4-6. The Conference is an impressive assemblage of speakers on all kinds of issues of interest to pro-family, traditional and economic conservatives.
Speakers include: Glenn Beck, Phyllis Schlafly, David Horowitz, Sen. Jane Cunningham, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Sen. Rick Santorum, and many more.
Full scholarships are available, but you will have to get yourself to and from St. Louis and find lodging (the conference hotel is $89/night).
If interested, call the office of the Constitutional Coalition THIS WEEK at 636.386.1789.
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After SIX years, we're still going strong! REAGANPALOOZA began as a way for all of our conservative friends from around the country to get together and celebrate the cause. JOIN US this year in celebrating the next generation of the conservative movement!
When: Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 8:30pm - 2:30am
Location: Hawk & Dove Bar
Street: 329 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20003
(Metro Stops: Capitol South or Eastern Market - blue/orange line)
Note: Eagle Forum Collegians is not endorsing these sites, but merely suggesting you check out the details to see if you might qualify or be able to qualify for a free trip!
