First, the cost of health care is and has obviously been rising over the past several decades; then again, so has the price of cars with additional safety features and homes with larger plots. Investigating the rising health care trends, it appears that they increase proportional to what we get. In other words, the cost of health care is rising proportional to the associated rise in the quality of health care.
We hear of the socialistic nature of health care in Canada and Britain that 'Canada's doing it,' or "Britain's health care is working,' but, interestingly enough, both Canada and Britain perform fewer MRI and CT scans per capita, and patients can wait up to 4 months for access to such technologies. In lieu of my recent experience waiting at a hospital bed, 4 months could be the differential between life and death.
In short, there is a difference between cost and price. Cost is the unchangeable financial impact of developing, performing, or otherwise making something available. For example, cost would include the price of chemicals, production, testing, and licensure of a new pharmaceutical drug. Price, on the other hand, would be what we pay to purchase said drug at a pharmacy or on the supermarket shelves.
The health care quandary is not a squibble about how much something costs, it is a problem about how much we're willing to pay for that costs: price.
2 comments:
Definitions get lost in the relative associations. Cost is the measure of obtaining any thing. Relative to the seller, its the expenses of production, relative to the consumer it is the expense of the seller's profit margin together with the expense of the production and other associated expenditures, transport, advertising, etc. etc.
Why war over words? Why not war over our morals? Systems are methods of operation designed as means to an end. Systems work according to design and the components that make them up. Human systems rely on the fiber of men and women to be upstanding to the determined duties. It would be good to have a King and a monarchy as a ruling government, if all Kings were righteous, but as they are not, a monarchy would quickly lead the people into slavery and unrighteousness. A Democratic Republic staves off such an outcome, at least so long as the majority of the people are righteous. My point is that our principles, our virtues, our morals are the important matters. The methods be they what work best in the face of the challenges and circumstances.
I believe taking care of those that cannot take care of themselves is a noble pursuit. I do not believe that extending a person's life for the enslavement of insurmountable debt is much of an improvement. I know that there are unscrupulous people that would take ill advantage of such generous systems of help, but what does it say about us if we turn our backs to those in need who would take advantage of help they otherwise would not get? What is the cost of doing unto another what we would surely want done to us in our hour of need?
It is said that Zion is a people of one heart and one mind where there is no poor. I think we should want to pitch in so that no one is poor to the health care they might need, so to maintain their lives. Will there be abusers of the system, problems in organization, only as much as there are imperfect people. But in my estimation, so long as the people as a whole retain the power to modify, protect, and perfect the system against those that would usurp power, wealth, and resources from the system, I think it is a step in the right direction. Crack babies without sensible parents out of no fault of their own should at least have brother and sister citizens that will save and prolong their lives as far as is possible. If it means I don't live as well off as some of my neighbors - well, that's a price and a cost I'm willing to pay.
Soo...
Price of a donut diet = Low.
Cost in disease = High?
There is a very simple fix for this. And it doesn't require government health care nor can government health care ever be better than government schools. Meaning expensive and wretched.
The solution is treat health insurance like car insurance. Everyone by law must have health insurance. Which policy and how much you pay for it is determined by the most efficient and fair method: The MARKET. Government can help out by giving tax credits to help the poor buy insurance and by buying policies for the indigent.
The result is that overweight people will pay much, much more for insurance. And guess what? People will start to eat healthy when it affects their pocketbooks. It's already been demonstrated at Safeway.
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