BenefitsAll

Drug price controls

It’s Not Skepticism Or Caution That Keeps Us From Upending Our Bloated Health Care System, It’s Unwillingness

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Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, relentlessly scoffs at the idea that Wall Street is Too Big To Fail. But it is his proposal to provide Medicare For All that exposes the real industry that is, in many people’s mind, Too Big To Fail—health care. A recent Washington Post article all but admits this and the Post is not alone in its thinking.

Throughout this very long campaign cycle countless politicians, policy wonks, economists, writers and everyday people have characterized Medicare For All as unrealistic or in Hillary Clinton’s recent words, “…too good to be true...” Seriously, how many euphemisms can opponents use to say what they’re really thinking—the health care industry is such a big part of our economy that we can’t change it. They are, however, right about
health care being a large part of the U.S. economy in terms of money and jobs.

  • Health care expenditures make up 17.5% of the nations gross domestic product (GDP). That means it is basically about 20% of the entire U.S. economy
  • We spent a little over $3 trillion for health care in 2014
  • The health care industry employs over 13 million workers and is the largest private sector business sector
Everything Is Too Tricky…

It’s one thing to be concerned about the impact on the economy if the health care industry undergoes a major overhaul overnight, it’s another to think we should take a break from addressing health care’s growing affordability issues. However, it seems that every proposed change to make our health care system more transparent, accountable and affordable is met with excuses or snark.

Electronic Health Records (EHR) – too expensive to purchase; time-consuming to evaluate and implement; have privacy and system compatibility issues; lack protections for proprietary information

Drug Price Controls – stifle innovation; scare away investors; halt production

Price Transparency – ignores quality standards; too difficult to determine; ignores geographical price differences; limited number of shoppable services to make a difference

Mission Accomplished… Continue Reading...
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