Posted by
John R. LaPlante on Saturday, October 07, 2006 12:37:26 PM
One-sixth of America’s economy lies within the health care sector, and it is both very sick and doing well. Innovation in prescription drugs and other treatment proceeds apace. That’s the good news.
Public programs such as Medicaid grow every year; in 2005, for example, spending on the Wisconsin Medicaid program grew 9 percent. And that’s without any expansions in the eligibility or benefit levels. Private insurance premiums increase at rates that put a squeeze on employers.
Spending more money on health care is not necessarily bad. Increased longevity is a good thing, as is increased health among the aging, the eradication of diseases, and improved treatment of chronic diseases.
But the current approach has many unintended consequences and side effects. The fact that most people get their insurance through the workplace mean that when you lose your job, you lose your insurance. That’s certainly the wrong time to lose insurance. This discourages people from changing jobs, which discourages economic dynamism and promotes an ill-fitting match between people and work.
Public programs, meanwhile, aren’t good for taxpayers or patients. One of today’s speakers, for example, said that it’s very difficult for a Medicaid patient in southeast Wisconsin to find a doctor. That’s not a good record for a program that allegedly serves the poor.
The solutions are many. Some involve changes in federal law. Others can be done at the state level. Still other solutions require changes in personal expectations of what health care should look like.