There has been considerable news pertaining to healthcare in
the US and understandably so given:
- The amount the industry contributes to GDP and
- Needless to say, the recent and ongoing myriad of challenges associated with the ACA (aka Obamacare).
It should not
be a surprise to many of my readers that I claim that we are to blame for this
mess - because we elected the politicians
that run the dysfunctional Federal government we now have.
Our political system aside, the real problem is not the
broken Federal website nor the lack of responsibility or accountability taken
by our President; these are just minor annoyances when looked at in the proper
perspective. The problem is the lack
of competition in the healthcare industry.
I like the concept of exchanges (as fiscal conservatives did years ago)
because exchanges when designed properly help foster competition; however, as I understand it, the ACA seeks
to drive us towards a single payer system through government regulations that dictate how the current exchanges should work (via such means as the “bellybutton tax”). These regulations instead diminish competition.
Competition leads to innovation and lower prices. We need not look far, just look at the
IT industry and the consumer products we use. However, this innovation and lower prices comes at a
cost. One such cost is that companies
that failed to innovate go out of business and people lose their jobs, but many
new companies and jobs are created in the process. Surely there are other
drawbacks; nothing is perfect, but I believe in the free market system and I advocate so should you.
We should unchain our healthcare system from constraining
and market limiting regulations to set it free to drive innovation; however,
for this to occur, we need to contact our politicians in Washington to let them
know what we want. I call them regularly, do you?
