When you go to a movie theater or pro baseball game, a $1.50 Coke suddenly skyrockets to $5. Maybe you can sneak a Coke or popcorn into a theater. But that’s frowned upon. No, you are expected to play by the theater’s rules. It’s their market and they have the power. And if you don’t like the prices, well, just wait for the movie on Netflix.
But if your appendix is about to burst, you can’t exactly treat the situation like an optional Braves’ game outing. You’re in a fix. And you enter a tilted market without a choice. You know the cheap aspirin suddenly takes on a new, inflated value in a hospital. The pricing structure is outrageous. But what are you going to do?
I broke my arm 10 years ago and I remember the Velcro and plastic brace I wore cost $200, though the material wasn’t worth a Happy Meal. But I couldn’t exactly give up on my arm.
No, few things get me wound up like healthcare. This issue cuts to the heart of my feelings about being a provider for my family. And I’m worried. I’ve watched my healthcare premiums soar over the past decade. And I fear that my family will be priced out of coverage over the next decade, unless something changes.
Plenty of other people share that concern. According to the National Coalition on Healthcare, “Since 1999, employment-based health insurance premiums have increased 120 percent, compared to cumulative inflation of 44 percent and cumulative wage growth of 29 percent during the same period.”
The coalition also notes that in 2008 an “annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,700.”
Of course, talk of healthcare solutions generates tremendous fear, too. A lot of people worry that a single payer government option makes them vulnerable to a government bureaucrat getting between them and their doctor. That’s understandable. That is a very valid fear. I worry about rationing, too. I don’t want to feel like I couldn’t get in to see a doctor.
But you can’t ignore the fact that right now insurance bureaucrats review your records and get between patients and doctors, determining health decisions from a faraway desk, something we fear of a government program.
Ultimately, our nation seems too angry to get beyond all this partisan bickering. And I worry that it’s getting worse. Sometimes I feel like we’d all rather limp along like wounded dogs than watch our red or blue team lose on any issue. Frankly, I really don’t give a rip. I’m too frustrated for that. Let whoever take credit, so long as we move toward mature solutions on healthcare.
I think it’s worth noting that a market is only healthy if it is growing. A stock that is stagnant or going down is not healthy. So, if we consider healthcare as nothing more than a free market issue, then we have to acknowledge what’s good and bad in that.
If you have a healthcare system that is funded by investors, you have the benefit of more financing for innovation. That is a huge plus. I think that’s one reason why America is near the top when it comes to healthcare technology. But investors expect growth. And growth needs more fuel, more patients. So we see so many people getting high-tech, expensive procedures that may or may not be warranted. Of course, this is a great benefit to many patients. But some see an underlying incentive in the industry to push patients to these expensive options whether they’re needed or not. And I think this is a valid point, given the constant need for investor returns. Investors won’t support your business unless you’re growing. That goes for healthcare, too, even if skyrocketing healthcare costs ultimately hurt our society.
In other countries, government sets prices for procedures. That would certainly never fly here. But what about having a collection of respectable medical professionals determine appropriate pricing? The free market may have determined that my cheap Velcro and plastic arm brace was worth $200, though I don’t think any adult with two eyes would. But any reasonable medical professional, I believe, would have balanced the cost somewhere between my Happy Meal pricing, which negates the real work that went into design, and the jacked up cost that simply cheats us all in the end.
It would be good, too, if we could find a way to encourage more people into primary care jobs.
The tremendous money in healthcare specialties creates the incentive for doctors to pursue specialty careers rather than the lower pay of primary care physicians, who are now in short supply. Yet, good primary care doctors can help keep people healthy and avoid the expensive specialty procedures. We shouldn’t underestimate their importance.
I’m not saying government has a fix all. But I do want to see some government involvement in shaping healthy incentives in a healthcare system that currently has some unhealthy forces at work.
Meanwhile, I’ll take an aspirin — and hope I can avoid the hospital.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal.
