So what’s new? Nothing, but we still don’t get it

Much is written about the cost of health care and the fact that at our current rate of increase, health care costs are not sustainable; it cannot keep climbing fast than and consume a greater portion of GDP. 

 

Most health care economists believe that present cost and coverage trends are not politically or economically sustainable.  They believe that we will have to make really tough choices as we try to satisfy potentially infinite demand with finite resources.  For how long can health care spending increase 2½ times faster than GDP?  The Health Care Blog, March 2010.

Apparently for quite some time.

“For the last several years health care costs have increased at alarming rates. The portion of GDP devoted to health care has risen from 5.9% in 1965 to nearly 10% today.  The cost of Medicare has increased over 800% in ten years.”

“The government’s current cost-cutting prescription is price competition.  One idea would tax health insurance premiums above a certain limit.  Along with this “tax incentive” employees would have to have a choice of health care plans so that they could choose a less expensive plan and thus avoid taxable income.  In fact, the worker who selects a less costly plan could receive a rebate.”  Employers Health Benefits Newsletter, January 1982.

“On the average, health insurance premiums have risen about 116% in the last five years. General Motors pays more for health care then it does for steel.  Insurance premiums are going up 20% to 30%. Hospital charges are rising 20% a year. As you no doubt realize, employers pay a good portion of the health care tab in the United States. The way our health care system operates there is very little incentive for anyone to control costs.”  The New Jersey Employer HMO Service Newsletter, June-July, 1976

I do not recall back then that insurance companies were accused of abusive practices or that an analogy was made comparing them to sharks lurking under the surface to bite us as we see today. In fact, nearly thirty years ago there was a greater recognition that the problem was costs and the various incentives associated with the system. 

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”false” link=”term=senator+rockafeller&iid=3739609″ src=”3/9/1/e/Senate_Confirms_Timothy_b7fa.jpg?adImageId=10931421&imageId=3739609″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /] I sure hope there aren’t and sharks in there. And, Ben about that Medicaid fiasco.

The problem of the uninsured has grown because they cannot afford health insurance, health insurance is expensive because health care is expensive, health care is expensive because of the growing use of more expensive technology, because nobody really cares what it costs, because patients are insulated from most of the costs, because we have abandoned the concept of insurance and for a host of other reasons, get it!  Apparently our politicians don’t