The Cost of Healthcare

[Autolykos]

I've read some threads lately about the cost of healthcare in the US and elsewhere. Those in favor of a "single-payer" or "universal" healthcare system point to how expensive healthcare has become in the United States. Unfortunately, they're right. Their detractors often point to the rise in government regulations as a reason why costs are on the rise in this area. Unfortunately, they're also right. However, there's something else that I think has contributed greatly to the rise of healthcare costs in this country. A while ago, I read in an article that something like half of one's total healthcare costs will be spent in the last six months of his life. The article is here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north325.html . Although he won't have to worry about paying back these costs (because he'll presumably be dead), his survivors will. This debt, in turn, just adds to the existing monetary inflation. The real question, though, is why people are motivated to do that and put such a burden on their loved ones. Are they that afraid of death that they'll do anything to live, even if it's just for another six months? Honestly, I can't answer these questions. I can only point to the behavior I see. It used to be that people died at home, and it was something of a noble thing. Now people die in hospitals with tubes in their noses and IVs in their arms, and it has become something to speak of only in whispers, something dreadful and disgusting. So I wonder, what's the point? In the meantime, though, the system, through programs like Medicare and Medicaid, is providing increasing motivation for people to disregard the costs of healthcare by demanding rights to the best kind of care possible, no matter how expensive. Thus the costs of healthcare keep going up. There are only two ways by which it will stop: either the current political trends somehow reverse (unlikely), or the system literally eats itself alive, leaving everyone with no healthcare at all. I fear that the latter course is inevitable.

Just my $0.42.

- Rob

[brien]

Quote by: Autolykos I've read some threads lately about the cost of healthcare in the US and elsewhere. Those in favor of a "single-payer" or "universal" healthcare system point to how expensive healthcare has become in the United States. Unfortunately, they're right. Their detractors often point to the rise in government regulations as a reason why costs are on the rise in this area. Unfortunately, they're also right. However, there's something else that I think has contributed greatly to the rise of healthcare costs in this country. A while ago, I read in an article that something like half of one's total healthcare costs will be spent in the last six months of his life. The article is here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north325.html . Although he won't have to worry about paying back these costs (because he'll presumably be dead), his survivors will. This debt, in turn, just adds to the existing monetary inflation. The real question, though, is why people are motivated to do that and put such a burden on their loved ones. Are they that afraid of death that they'll do anything to live, even if it's just for another six months? Honestly, I can't answer these questions. I can only point to the behavior I see. It used to be that people died at home, and it was something of a noble thing. Now people die in hospitals with tubes in their noses and IVs in their arms, and it has become something to speak of only in whispers, something dreadful and disgusting. So I wonder, what's the point? In the meantime, though, the system, through programs like Medicare and Medicaid, is providing increasing motivation for people to disregard the costs of healthcare by demanding rights to the best kind of care possible, no matter how expensive. Thus the costs of healthcare keep going up. There are only two ways by which it will stop: either the current political trends somehow reverse (unlikely), or the system literally eats itself alive, leaving everyone with no healthcare at all. I fear that the latter course is inevitable. Just my $0.42. - Rob

Rob: An excellent article. Thanks for sharing. It surely opens my eyes to the problem of the ongoing socialization of Medicine here in the US. I sense that this topic is generating as much interest as Dr North's lectures on Socialized Medicine that he cited in the article. A perfect argument for returning the practice of Medicine back to those who know it best, namely the Physicians.

I can only see this situation getting much worse as the my "baby boomer" generation reaches age 65. I yi yi............Once again, thanks.