Surprise! The Government Makes Health Care a Lot More Expensive.
It’s not everyday when a federal government official actually comes out against rampant waste and overspending, which makes this editorial by HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt a pretty uncommon thing. He points out that one really big reason that health care is so expensive is…wait for it…the federal government.
Oh, and lobbyists, too. But that’s no shock. Here’s his tale of the oxygen pumping machine:
An oxygen concentrator, for example, is a device that delivers oxygen through a tube to patients, and it costs about $600 on the open market. Medicare beneficiaries typically rent the machines. The rental period, set by statute, is up to 36 months. The monthly rental payment, also set by statute, is $198.40. So renting an oxygen concentrator for 36 months costs $7,142.
As with most items and services in Medicare Part B, beneficiaries pay 20% of the costs, and Medicare pays the remaining 80%. The government, therefore, pays $5,714 – almost 10 times the free-market price of purchasing a concentrator outright. The patient pays $1,428 – more than twice the free-market price of purchase. Even allowing for the costs of setting up equipment, training and fitting the beneficiary, and other things, the rental fee is way out of line.
Yes, indeed it is.
He’s writing because a group of lobbyists who would much rather have the old system, wherein they overcharge both the government and sick people, are trying very hard to kill the bidding program.
Of course, they could just wait until the Democrats get their national health care system. Then the money will just pour in and they won’t have to hit a lick which works out nicely for both groups. It’ll be hell on us, but what’s that to the worst Congress in history?
(via Mark Hemingway)
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Category: General
I often view the Left's attempt to socialize health as "good intentions paving the way to Hell."
However, there is a case to be made, presented in part in this post, that the Left is a far more insidious beast than they would have you believe….
Socialized health care will be a tragedy of epic proportions. The sad thing is, we already have health benefits available through the State for people in the lower income brackets. In Arizona we have arizona AHCCCS, which covers the uninsured in the lower income brackets.
I think deregulation of the health care industry would allow middle-income bracket Americans access to affordable plans that they could purchase rather than relying on their employers. There are many, many options that this country could pursue working alongside private industry rather than supplanting it completely.
Ah well, here comes the Nanny State…
I'd like one day to get into my thoughts on health care in more detail but I'm afraid that the post would be as dry as burnt toast in the Sahara.
I think the cost of health care would change a lot for the better if we pulled some of the hand of government off of it. For instance, health insurers are allowed to collude to a large degree on what they charge for various levels of coverage. That's not something we would normally allow, but in health care, that's god with Congress. What would happen to prices in that case? I'd be willing to bet that they'd drop some.