So the European and Canadian governments would never lie to you, but only the USA's would? You take this position?

A snippet from an article on Haciendapub.com, a web publication devoted to many topics in medicine, history, and politics. The writer and owner is a retired US neurosurgeon. I write on this blog frequently myself.

Another article by CBS News states: “Medical care prices increased 4 percent in 2016 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and premiums under Obamacare's second-lowest costing "silver" plans rose 7.5 percent in 2015. Plus, the U.S. spends far more per capita on health care — $9,892 in 2016 — than any other nation.” All this is true, and the article correctly cites some of the reasons why medical care is expensive. Unfortunately, the first factor listed, “high administrative costs” fails to identify the real culprit; instead, like the previous writer, the CBS article blames high administrative costs on the “U.S. having so many payers — from a slew of private health insurance companies to government programs — that physicians have to negotiate with in the regular course of business.”

High administrative costs are the result of government imposed regulations, such as waiting on the phone for authorization for medical testing and procedures, approval for hospitalizations, hospital days, etc., and for this rigmarole an excessive number of billing clerks and bureaucracy is needed. These regulations begin with Medicare and Medicaid to reduce costs, paradoxically, and soon enough find themselves in the business of “private insurance.” Thus, bureaucracy and complexity in the third party payer system is directly or indirectly government related. A “slew of private health insurance companies” is good for the public; it does not increase complexity per se as claimed, because free market competition and variety of choice in insurance plans, if unfettered by government, would increase freedom of choice and reduce costs, as they do in every other industry.

Other pernicious causes of high cost of medical care are the practice of defensive medicine and the high price of technology. The first has been an insoluble problem because the U.S. has more preying lawyers than any other “industrialized nation,” and in litigious America, fishing expeditions and ambulance chasing have sadly become repulsively too common. Trial lawyer advertising in the quest of fomenting an adversarial society, instead of a harmonious one, is another fact of life. Defensive medicine to protect from medical lawsuits, consequently, will persist, until vigorous tort reform is implemented. High technology will result in high costs because we are at the cutting edge of advances, and research and development is expensive.

The article, as mentioned, identifies the problems, but then as if on cue — like some of the other phony claims and leftist rhetoric that we have encountered — calls for socialized medicine. The sophistry used in this fallacious claim is that universal coverage will bring about a reduction in health care costs, asserting, “When countries cover everybody, they then turn to saving money.”

For the full read, please click on this link: