What If The Government Ran Health Care?

Plenty of pundits are predicting what our nation's health care system would be like if the government was in charge of it.

In this brief note, just consider our government's track record of running other public services. And consider their cost.

Amtrack? United States Postal Service? Military procurement?

No matter what costs are forecast, they have always cost more when the government does it. Way more. Health care would be no different. Instead of a flu shot at the local drug store costing you $10 to $20 - by the time the multi layered system delivered it to you it would cost you $100 in taxes.

Why did that famous $800 hammer cost $800? Production limits, tough specifications, hundreds of people developing, producing, administering, and delivering the hammer, accounting for the hammers, analyzing the hammers, hiring a staff to study the hammer performance, commissioning a panel to see if we really need the hammer, conducting a congressional investigation into the waste fraud and corruption in the hammer development cycle, and more.

Maybe we should just buy each doctor a hammer and have them hit everyone in the head in the fall.

Would Universal Health Care in the US be . . . NICE?

NICE, also known as National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, is the UK's system for determing the guidelines for medical practitioners as to how various conditions should be treated and whether or not a particular treatment should be funded. This layer of government decides if your medical condition merits treatment and what kinds of treatment. If they decide you get the treatment, it is given to you by the government system, paid for by the taxes you'd pay as a citizen of the UK. Yes, to be eligible you must be a citizen.

Up until very recently, the cancer drug Sutent, was prohibited by NICE. If you had renal cell carcinoma or other cancers, you were not allowed to take Sutent - the "gold standard" for treating RCC. Previous to Sutent, patients with kidney cancer had no hope. Traditional chemo is not very effective against it and Sutent is a kidney cancer patient's best hope of surviving.

What if? What if our government takes over health care management and decides that Sutent is just too expensive to provide to those in the public option?  That would be a swift death sentence for those who, like me, are a Stage IV cancer patient.

I hope the health care reform bill being debated soon in the Senate gets the swift death it deserves.

Remember the Clinton Health Care Reform Bill?

It failed too. And thanks for the comment on the last post. The Clinton Health Care bill failed with a greater majority in congress (I think) and less popularity in the White House. Hopefully this bill will not make it out of the Senate. Then, a repeal of the health care reform bill would not be necessary.

Clinton's 1992 campaign did focus on universal health care, and he never delivered. Sound familiar yet?

Senate Votes to Move Ahead to Debate

Tonight the Senate voted to move ahead to debate the Health Care Reform Bill - S. 1728 by a vote of 60 Democrats to 39 Republicans. Get the full story here: "Senate votes to bring health care bill to the floor."

With any luck the debate in the Senate will be well publicized and reason will prevail.

Here's What Scares Me About the Health Care Bill Being Considered in 2009

In a word, cost. I do not want the government to interfere with my cancer treatments. Given the high cost of my medications and my low copays I don't want anything to change. I am afraid that my cancer medication (Sutent) will become unaffordable, or as in the UK, deemed unaffordable by the government.



You also have to consider the "unintended consequences" of the bill. In just one isolated example, Tricare, underwritten by Humana, has been said by the administration to be safe from any changes. BUT, what if, because of a mass exodus out of Humana, Tricare has to undergo a massive change. Raising premiums, denying coverage, limiting diagnostics, etc..?? The president has said that Tricare would not change, but he cannot promise something he has no control over. True?

Why would Humana fall apart? If tens of thousands of Humana's other customers opt for the "government option" Humana would not be able to continue as normal. The same holds true for all other insurers. If there is a mass exodus out of traditional health insurance to a government plan, they would not survive. The only thing left would be the government run and government administered program. That would not be pretty.