Quote of the Day: "Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, 'See, if it wasn't for us, you couldn't walk." -- Harry Browne (1933-2006), co-founder of Downsize DC
Subject: The not so mysterious case of the vanishing doctors
In case you missed it . . .
A survey by The Physician's Foundation finds that nearly HALF of primary care doctors plan to reduce or eliminate their practices in the next three years!
The survey also gives the reasons . . .
* Too much non-clinical paperwork
* Difficulty getting reimbursed
* Too much government regulation
* Lack of time (caused by the above problems) to form patient relationships
These problems exist because the government has corrupted the nature of health insurance.
* Insurance is supposed to cover rare but expensive procedures
* But various government policies have made health insurance cover the medical equivalents of oil changes and tire rotations
* This means that most medical care is paid for by the government, or by insurance companies, and not by the people actually seeking the care
* This causes people to over-use medical services, and doctors to order questionable procedures
* That causes both insurance companies and the government to limit their costs by second-guessing every decision your doctor makes
* This burden of regulation leads to piles of non-clinical paperwork and difficulty getting reimbursed
But it gets worse. Health care prices are actually set by the government . . .
* The government funds HALF of all medical care
* This gives the government huge clout as the largest purchaser of health care
* The government uses this clout to limit what it's willing to pay for every medical procedure
* The insurance companies use these government prices to set their own prices
* If these fixed prices are too low, shortages result, AND DOCTORS VANISH!
But that's only the beginning . . .
If your health insurance is tied to your employer -- if you risk catastrophe because losing your job means losing your health insurance -- you can thank the government for that. Federal tax policies created the incentives that caused your health insurance to be tied to your job.
But if you don't have employer-provided health insurance, and find coverage too expensive to buy on your own, you can thank the government for that too. State and federal laws mandate that insurance policies cover everything under the sun, making it hard to buy affordable major medical coverage.
The politicians could easily fix these problems by . . .
* Providing tax refunds for all health care expenses, including insurance premiums
* Allowing insurance companies to compete with different policies at different prices by ending mandates on what all health insurance must cover
* Funding Health Savings Accounts for Medicare recipients so they'll have more incentives to be frugal
The solution to our health care problems is less meddling by the politicians, not more. The case of the vanishing doctors isn't mysterious. The politicians did it, and they want to do more of what caused it!
Send your Congressional employees instructions asking them reduce their meddling in health care. Use your personal comments to mention the arguments in this Dispatch (you could just cut and paste if you want). If you've used our Educate the Powerful System before, do the following . . .
The more and more that occurs, the more and more I see that my political philisophy (Libertarianism) is the only philosophy that makes any sense. Doctors are quitting their practices because the government is interfering in the markets.
Prices are absurdly high, due to the idiotic decisions of government to dictate what insurance must cover (as opposed to letting the market decide what it must cover.)
More and more money is spent on administrative fees and on malpractice insurance than on actual medical supplies (due to government interference, and failure to rein in idiotic lawyers and even more idiotic judges who do not step in and correct a jury's failure to limit damages to a reasonable level.)
All of this adds up to a simple question.
In a world of Government Controlled Healthcare will you really be able to get Healthcare?
Will there be any doctors of quality?
Think about the education system, would you really want a teacher, or a principal to be a doctor?
Or think about the IRS, would you want an IRS Agent to be a doctor and be operating on you?
As usual it is being proven that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and when the government insists that the lunch must be free, instead of getting more food, you get less as those that produce the food, and prepare the food give government the finger, and walk away, not willing to waste their time for some one else's benefit with out compensation.
