modernmonalisa

Dear Book Reviewers,

Please stop comparing other writers to Tolkien. 

Thank you,

Annalisa

So, here is what I was going to say that would have been so super long...

Here are a couple of other things to be considered when thinking about health care:

More health care (per person) isn't necessarily better health care. There was <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande">an article by Awul Gawande</a> in The New Yorker about this last year. There are more affordable ways to do health care that could significantly decrease the costs of providing everyone with at least basic care (an annual checkup, reasonable co-payments on prescriptions, preventative screening for cancer, etc...) As well as decreasing unnecessary and expensive test, this could include expanding the role of Nurse Practitioners to diagnose and treat common ailments like colds, ear infections, etc... It's silly to waste $75+ on a doctor's visit to have them tell you "you have the flu, so there's nothing I can do for you. Just drink lots of fluids and get some rest." Or perhaps the gov't could offer lower student loan interest rates to medical/dental students who agree to work a certain amount of hours at local clinics.

Second, I've just been learning me some economics, and it seems that the whole "I don't want to pay for anyone else's health care, because it doesn't directly benefit me" creates a "tragedy of the commons". Which happens when individuals make decisions solely in their own interest, and the result is that the situation becomes worse for everybody. Think about it--even if you don't drive on the freeway, how does your food get the grocery store? If only freeway users had to pay for the freeways (and I don't know how that would be possible), those costs would definitely be passed on to you by all the businesses that do use the freeways. And if every family had to pay for their own children's education, there would be a lot of uneducated children out there (b/c not every family would be able to afford the costs). And an uneducated population = a poorer population  = more crime, gangs, and drug activity  = a society you probably don't want to live in. Not to mention that unless you're super rich you probably won't be able to afford good housing, because the companies building the housing will pass all of their transportation costs on to you. As well as all the other businesses that rely on goods getting from one place to the other. And of course these businesses will lower wages and health benefits for employees because of their increased costs (you can bet the people at the top won't be taking pay cuts), which again = increased poverty.  Maybe for you, depending on where you work. So now you're not making as much money, you have higher costs for your basic necessities, and your neighborhood is going to pot. All which, trust me, creates stress, and stress is bad for your health.

And now, getting to health care--

I've read and heard many times how significantly cheaper it is to subsidize health care for those who can't afford it than to wait until a person ends up in the emergency room.*  As I understand it, people without health care put off seeing a doctor when they aren't feeling well, because it's a large expense. And, like me, they probably skip an annual physical. So then maybe they don't find out that they have high or low blood pressure, or a heart defect, or cancer, until it becomes a life-threatening emergency. By then, the cost of treatment is potentially much higher than it would have been had they learned of the condition earlier.  ($Blood pressure medication < $ triple bypass). And since by law or oath or something, doctors don't turn away emergency patients, hospitals end up incurring large costs that patients can't afford to pay back. And guess who ultimately pays for those extra costs? It's definitely not the insurance companies.

So even if none of your taxes ever go to provide health care for someone else, you're still paying for the cost of treating them. And it's costing you more than it would if your taxes were subsidizing care, because it's cheaper to pay for preventative care than it is for treating emergencies. And if you end up in the emergency room, and you don't have good insurance, you're going to pay out of your own pocket. Thus, choosing not to contribute to other people's health, you're also screwing yourself.





*(Personally I think it's ridiculous to pay $1000 to sit in an emergency room for three hours just to get a simple diagnosis and prescription, and I don't see why it should cost that much. It would make more sense to have 24-hour clinics that could treat non-life-threatening cases).