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Health Care (Medicare/Medicaid)
The graph shows we need to do something to lower the growth of medical spending
or accept a much higher tax rate. Indeed, it appears to be our biggest deficit
problem. We can fix the ever growing Medicare costs by:
1. More Efficient Health Care System Paper work efficiency is the easiest
aspect of the health care system to address and should come first. The amount of
paper work for insurance and medical centers has largely escaped the
technological gains most industries experienced in the last decade. This could
be a one time cost savings which would not necessarily affect the growth of
medical care costs. However there is a possibility that these technological
gains could be used to help provide better information about the use and
effectiveness of treatments and procedures which in turn could help cut costs
and lead to more and better information for both patients and providers which
could continue to restrain costs well into the future.
2. Provide More Information to Patient We need to provide more information to
patients on the medical care being provided, how much is used, how much it
costs, and how effective it is, will help the patient make more informed
decisions on the health care they need by evaluating the costs to the benefits.
3. Ration Health Care -The bottom line is that we will need to ration health
care. "In the end you're going to have to ration the ever improving technology
in health care," said Ruddy Penner in an interview.[i]
This is not an easy thing
for Americans to accept, nor is it an easy thing to do. It will mean unpleasant
things, people will have to die sooner, and others will have to wait longer for
medical care, or accept a lower quality of life. Despite these seemingly
unpleasant conclusions, David Wessel made a good point when he noted that
Americans spend more than twice the amount on health care than other developed
countries. Its hard to argue that we are two times healthier because of our
large amounts of spending on health care.[ii]
4. Insurance Voucher System To address the rationing issue, another option
would be to give vouchers to people who receive Medicare, or Medicaid. This
would allow them to purchase a health insurance in the free market. People, who
are less desirable because of their age and illness, would receive higher
vouchers to make them more attractive to providers. This would give the
government more control of rising costs. The problem is whether or not there are
enough turnovers between doctors and insurance companies to make health
insurance function as a healthy market. This plan would require more information
to be provided to consumers so they could weigh the costs and benefits of each
plan.
[i]Penner,
Rudy. Interview with Macroeconomic Policy and Politics class. 10 March 2005
[ii]Wessel,
David. "Americans are Buying Ever More Health Care." Wall Street Journal
09 Jan 2003. 02 Mar 2005 <www.wsj.com>
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