We’ve posted on this subject many times in the past. But every election cycle someone drags up the failures of our current medical care system. Well, for starters that opinion is what you find in a barnyard. The American medical care is by far the best in the world. We have better medical resources, more creative medical-related inventions, state-of-the-art drug research facilities (imagine how the COVID situation might have gone), and more watchdog groups to assure a high standard of quality of care than any other nation on earth. That said, yes, we do have problems. First, the demand for health care is tempered by the supply of illness, injury, and pregnancy. The more the average citizen lives on the edge of common sense–the more cost is added. Second, the stakeholders, doctors, insurance and drug companies and potential patients–all have different goals. Doctors and hospitals try to keep people healthy. Insurance and drug companies are beholden to their stockholders and employees to turn a profit and patients seem to think they can abuse themselves any way they choose because they have a safety net. All of these conflicting objectives lead to gaming the medical system. Doctors and hospitals find ways to increase their income. Insurance companies make a strong effort to deny or reduce claim payouts. And patients fail to live intelligently by eating right, refraining from smoking, excessive drinking, illicit drug abuse, engaging in dangerous activities and generally ignoring signs of potential health problems when symptoms occur. A recent study predicted that health care costs would increase an average of 5.8% in 2025. That’s roughly double the cost of inflation. Since employer-based medical plans provide most of the coverages for the average citizen, employers are planning to implement cost-cutting changes in 2025. Said another way, YOU ARE GOING TO PAY MORE FOR THE SAME OR LESS COVERAGE IN 2025 THAN IN 2024. When the cost of new gene and cellular therapies, new drugs and new medical equipment are added to the cost equation we face a situation that spells more products will come from foreign manufacturing because American employers cannot afford medical plan cost escalation. Face it, we are our own worst enemy. Bernie Sanders scares us because he sees a national healthcare plan as a top priority–when the reality is–we can’t afford the nearly $5 trillion sticker price. Until Americans learn that the care of their own body and mental facilities is THEIR RESPONSIBILTY FIRST and, only after living with common sense routines, then use the medical care system, we cannot move from the current quagmire. Yes, that quagmire is the best medical plan on earth (ask any Canadian or Brit) but it needs serious adjustment before we look to a national plan.
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