Without rules (regulation) banks seek ways to manipulate the system to maximize profits. The current financial mess was facilitated by banks’ ability to make bad loans and then pass the risk to someone else.
In health care we have similar situation. We insist on autonomy for patients (deregulation). It’s in our ethical code that patients and their providers are free to make health care decision that best fit the needs of the patient. Our system of insurance facilitates this by passing the financial ramifications (risk) of this decision on to someone else–insurers and ultimately government health programs.
In the financial system some form of regulation is apparently essential to prevent financial collapses–we’re had several major financial crises related to deregulation over the past 25 years. It appears that Friedman, Milton that is, was wrong and financial markets are unable to regulate themselves without collapsing.
In healthcare we need a similar check on poorly considered treatments. Our system is collapsing. It’s estimated that up to 30% of health care services are unnecessary. Many approaches are overpriced and not cost-effective–that is they have some efficacy but the cost is beyond which any health care system, much less most individual, can afford.
Conservatives believe that by passing costs on to the patient we will force them to make better decisions and the system will self regulate (Medicynical note: as effectively as our financial system? ). They propose health savings accounts and high deductible insurance plans, with an emphasis on patients sharing the cost. Not a bad idea if we all had high incomes and lots of savings. But it’s a fact that the median income in our country is just $50,000/household and most citizens have very limited savings. Believe me, most families cannot afford several thousand dollars/year more in health expenses (deductibles and cost sharing)–above and beyond the several thousand already paid for insurance. In such a system, if implemented, those who become sick and can’t afford their cost sharing will continue to seek care and gravitate, just as now, into the public system. The conservative solution leads to a dead end.
A better approach is more comprehensive health coverage with moderate deductibles but with a system that assesses health technology and advances for efficacy and cost effectiveness. Hopefully when developers of new approaches realize that the system won’t pay exorbitant prices for modest advances, value will become a part of health care.
We literally have to change the culture of medicine.
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