Do you agree on the statement of Bart Simpson regarding the Healthcare System?
The free market isn’t providing us an adaquate healthcare system.
Some years ago I found a cartoon on the internet with Bart Simpson repeating this line on a blackboard.
In the Netherlands the gouvernment for years now is steering towards a free healthcare market. Purpose is an on-demand-healthcare system. A growing numbre of people now already is unable to pay the insurance premium. Concerning the fact that healthcare insurance will become more expensive over the next coming years and knowing that in the USA kandidates for presidency are now saying they want a public health insurance just because the large number of uninsured, I ask you if you agree with Bart Simpson.
Good Answers (1)
Arie V
Interim Manager, Owner, Arivé Management Services.
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Before starting to sell the idea that a free market can solve the problem of rising costs of healthcare, the responsible politicians should have asked themselves what kind of market they talk about.
Because good health is the most valuable thing for most people and because the definition of good health is extended more and more it can be said that the healthcare market is a market with an unlimited demand.
For providers of healthcare the access to the market is very limited because of the existing regulations on qualifications of professionals and of institutions.
Hospital care is concentrated in large hospitals who are practically a monopolist in their region.
So in a market with an unlimited demand for a highly valued good, with monopolistic providers and nearly impossible new entries of providers prices will go up (instead of down) as each student in economy can tell you.
I think Bart Simpson is a smart guy.
Arie
More Answers (2)
Free market only makes sure its getting cheaper for the government. Cheaper only means that less people are using the healthcare system. And what is adequate? Adequate is an opinion, what is adequate for one, is not necessarily adequate for all.
So, your question cant be really answered. It depends on your point of view about what is adequate ...
Michael M
Financial Assoiate at Thrivent Financial For Luterans
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There is no thing as “free health care” the question is what to provide and how to pay for it.
Under a “free market” approach the insurance company's want to insure only healthy people who are not likely to get sick in that their goal is to make a profit. The insurance companies can bargaining for reduced rates from providers of health care due to the “volume purchase” that they make with thousands of insured. With the stated goal of driving down the price of health care and improve profit.
The providers goal is to maximize the revenue with the minimum expense. Every hospital will express that they “give away millions of dollars of care” as a reason to have tax exempt status, federal state and local subsidies as well as seeking to have volunteers to work in the hospital. The free care is only given to people who have no insurance and no resources to bill at the full price often 2 or 3 times what the insurance company's discounted rates are. They do have legal obligations to provide care for emergency regardless of ability to pay. As to the amount billed in the event of an emergency the consumer does not have the ability to shop around in the same way as getting a new TV. If you have any income or resources you will be expected to pay the bill at full price. This also does not address that need for non emergency health care in that there is no legal right to get medications or preventative care.
I want to express that I do not condemn the insurance company's in that they are doing what is required under the free market system. An insurance company that does not screen the health of new customers will be put out of business in that people who have major health problems will jump in to have their medical bills paid. Just like you can not get insurance for a house that is currently on fire or purchase car insurance to pay the cost of the accident you just had.
I also do not condemn the hospital or other health care providers in that it is reasonable to expect to be paid for work completed. I will at times volunteer my time but still need to support my family. In that a lot of health care is a free market most places charge not based on the cost of production but on what the market will allow. I also want to have them be able to stay in business.
As the result of this I think that the question needs to be how do we decide what levels of health care to provide (it is not unlimited) and how do we pay for it.
