Healthcare is complicated enough without doublespeak like this in the Wall Street Journal: “Too much government support risks crowding out private-sector insurance alternatives Mr. Bush wants to promote.” That’s the Bush Administration’s spin on scrimping on a federal grant program that boosts medical care for poor children by insuring their parents. Obviously, private insurance is not an “alternative” for families who can not afford it. Or maybe the reporter means “alternatives” for the government, like subsidizing private insurance?
The Bush Administration may believe that market forces make health care more efficient. But the market doesn’t always its magic everywhere. (The invisible hand has students at the top of their medical school classes going into dermatology. They can make easier money injecting Botox and Restylane than saving lives).
The truth is, the private insurance maze makes health care more expensive. It’s the reason why Americans spend 50 percent more per capita than any other country does on medical care. How so? Private medical insurance actually takes up a dollar out of every three spent on health care in this country. If only this money went straight to the hospitals that serve the poor, it would pay for a lot more care and medicine.
But no. So we still have tragedies like the 12-year-old in February who died of a tooth infection that spread to his brain before his mother could find a Medicaid dentist to extract the tooth.
