Krugman: The Medical Money Pit

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/opinion/15krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

A dozen years ago, everyone was talking about a health care crisis. But then the issue faded from view: a few years of good data led many people to conclude that H.M.O.'s and other innovations had ended the historic trend of rising medical costs.

But the pause in the growth of health care costs in the 1990's proved temporary. Medical costs are once again rising rapidly, and our health care system is once again in crisis. So now is a good time to ask why other advanced countries manage to spend so much less than we do, while getting better results.

<snip>

But in any case, Britain isn't the country we want to look at, because its health care system is run on the cheap, with total spending per person only 40 percent as high as ours.

The countries that have something to teach us are the nations that don't pinch pennies to the same extent - like France, Germany or Canada - but still spend far less than we do. (Yes, Canada also has waiting lists, but they're much shorter than Britain's - and Canadians overwhelmingly prefer their system to ours. France and Germany don't have a waiting list problem.)

...purchases, private college tuition fees and spouses plastic surgery costs made by doctors.

periods stems from the way it is set up, with the rich and corporate allowed to opt out of it via private insurance. That leaves a way to underfund it for the rest of the country.

The only way to insure any national healthcare system is fully funded and remains so is to make sure it is mandatory and universal and that the rich do not have a way to opt out unless they leave the country for treatment.

we would rather have some money in our pocket and something to whinge about.

is because of all the money it costs doctors in malpractice insurance and the only way to fix our healthcare system is with tort reform and stopping activist judges..don't you know? THe president has a plan, open up a tax advantaged medical savings account, put your money in the stock market to save for medical expenses and buy a high deductable insurance policy, problem solved. What, you can't save any more money on top of your IRA, 401K, education, etc? well, get with the program, it's the magic of compound interest. Besides, we don't really need health care with the Rapture coming in a few days.:crazy:

the Republicans just attacked and destroyed anyone who wanted to do anything about it, until at last the movement simply stopped. Now with Big Pharma and HuMungOus HMO making record profits, they are only stymied for a while on how to make the critics shut up again.