government is a more efficient way to bring down prices<\/a>, therefore America should embrace the single-payer model of health care used in Britain, Canada, Cuba, the Veteran\u2019s Administration, etc.\u00a0 He is mistaken.\u00a0 He\u2019s great at reading balance sheets, lousy at political economic theory.<\/p>\nI agree that government-run health care could theoretically control prices.\u00a0 They\u2019d simply pass a law: nobody can charge more than $1.00 for any medical procedure, device or drug.\u00a0 There, see?\u00a0 Prices contained.\u00a0 Aspirin.\u00a0 Heart transplant.\u00a0 Everything\u2019s a dollar.\u00a0 In theory.<\/p>\n
In practice, it won\u2019t work.\u00a0 People who provide medical services can\u2019t afford to provide them at that price.\u00a0 Either they stop providing medical services, or they go off-book somehow. Maybe all the doctors move to Mexico where they can charge fair prices.\u00a0 Maybe all the medical device companies move to Poland where the government welcomes investment and doesn\u2019t try to kill it.\u00a0 Capital \u2013 including human capital \u2013 is mobile.<\/p>\n
Hillary recognized this problem when she invented Hillarycare in 1992.\u00a0 Her solution: draft all the doctors and treat them as members of the military.\u00a0 You want to practice medicine in America?\u00a0 Then you go where you\u2019re told and do as you\u2019re told.\u00a0 In the past, you may have been a plastic surgeon making millions in Hollywood; today, you\u2019re a gynecologist on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation making the same pay as any other Captain in the Army.\u00a0 Don\u2019t like it?\u00a0 Turn in your medical license. This is not an incentive for people to study 10 years to become a doctor.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t work on the other end, either.\u00a0 People who desire medical services have no incentive to forego care under a single-payer system.\u00a0 Got a sniffle?\u00a0 Run to the doctor, it\u2019s free.\u00a0 So the lines get longer and longer until patients die waiting for an appointment, which already has happened at the VA.\u00a0 Or health care committees decide which patients are deserving of medical treatment and which should be denied treatment, which already has happened in Britain.\u00a0 Or doctors decide which patients should be helped to die and thereby reduce caseloads, which some Dutch doctors already are doing.\u00a0 The rich can afford to fly to wherever the doctors are, and to pay out of pocket for medical care. \u00a0The poor and middle class will be promised free medical care but won\u2019t get it, facing endless waiting lists and rationed care.<\/p>\n
\u201cSingle-payer\u201d is simply another way of saying \u201cwage-and-price controls.\u201d\u00a0 They didn\u2019t work when Diocletian tried them and never have worked since.\u00a0 I confidently predict they won\u2019t work now.<\/p>\n
Joe Doakes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They did wonders for the US economy in the seventies.<\/p>\n
You remember what a greaet time the seventies were, rigtht?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Which is the most efficient way to bring down prices: government dictate, or free market? Warren Buffet seems to be saying government is a more efficient way to bring down prices, therefore America should embrace the single-payer model of health care used in Britain, Canada, Cuba, the Veteran\u2019s Administration, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism-v-socialism","category-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63757,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63751\/revisions\/63757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}