HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENTS
April 19, 2002 - WAR REPORT NUMBER 16-2002
This is the first of two WAR Reports on this subject. Should you accept OP-Eds as gospel truths? I think not. Why? Read on.

To illustrate, I refer to an op-ed by Paul Krugman titled, "Bad Medicine" in the March 19, 2002, edition of The New York Times. The author asks, "Why do health care costs keep on rising? It's not because doctors and hospitals are greedy; it's because of medical progress." More and more conditions that once lay beyond the doctor's reach can now be treated, adding years to the lives of patients and greatly increasing the quality of those years -- but at even greater expense. A triple coronary bypass does a lot more for you than a nice bedside manner, but it costs a lot more.

While I agree with the author's observations, there are many other minor interconnected reasons for rising health care costs. One is that the consumer determines the price of products in our free market system. In health care, the patient is not even at the bargaining table when employers are purchasing health care insurance. (I will address this again in future War Reports.)

The author continues to say that if medicine were purely a private matter, medical progress would pose no more of a dilemma than, say, progress in home entertainment systems. But in fact, the United States, like every advanced country, treats essential health care as a right, not a privilege. Our Medicare/Medicaid combination provides this right somewhat haphazardly; still, the intent of our system is that nobody should be denied life-saving treatment due to lack of funds.

Again, the author provides an element of truth. But it is the U.S. democrats that treat health care as a right, not as a privilege. The problem is that democrats cannot comprehend a fundamental economic fact that universal health care has an unlimited demand for health care services but all countries have limited resources to pay for these services. There is no free lunch.

Stay tuned! Why? Because I tell it like it is and it's your money.

God Bless America.