Authorerd by Alice Salles via TheAntiMedia.org,
Government’s meddling in the healthcare business has been disastrous from the get-go.
Since 1910, when Republican William Taft gave in to the American Medical Association’s lobbying efforts, most administrations have passed new healthcare regulations. With each new law or set of new regulations, restrictions on the healthcare market went further, until at some point in the 1980s, people began to notice the cost of healthcare had skyrocketed.
This is not an accident. It’s by design.
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As regulators allowed special interests to help design policy, everything from medical education to drugs became dominated by virtual monopolies that wouldn’t have otherwise existed if not for government’s notion that intervening in people’s lives is part of their job.
But how did costs go up, and why didn’t this happen overnight?
It wasn’t until 1972 that President Richard Nixon restricted the supply of hospitals by requiring institutions to provide a certificate-of-need.
Just a couple years later, in 1974, the president also strengthened unions for hospital workers by boosting pension protections, which raise the cost for both those who run hospitals and taxpayers in cases of institutions that rely on government subsidies. This move also helped force doctors who once owned and ran their own hospitals to merge into provider monopolies. These, in turn, are often only able to keep their doors open with the help of government subsidies.
This artificial restriction on healthcare access had yet another harsh consequence: overworked doctors.
But they weren’t the first to feel the consequences hit home. As the number of hospitals and clinics became further restricted and the healthcare industry became obsessed with simple compliance, patients were the first to feel abandoned.
According to Business Insider, the average doctor has thousands of patients, and each visit lasts less than 30 minutes. Prior to the government’s slow but absolute control of health care, the doctor listened to the patient — many old timers will confirm — even if they couldn’t afford it. Few were turned down. Now, doctors can hardly recall the conversations they have with the people they are supposed to be looking after.
As President Barack Obama pushed further restrictions on the insurance industry by touting his Affordable Care Act as a piece of legislation that would make insurance more affordable — ignoring that insurance isn’t the same as care — the overall cost of coverage also increased over the years. And as a result, a new group of independent healthcare professionals went on to ignite one of the most liberating revolutions in recent U.S. history.
Direct Primary Care: Removing Artificial Restrictions from the Picture
Business Insider chronicles the story behind Dr. Bryan Hill’s practice. As a pediatrician, Hill spent most of his life dealing with insurance companies. But one day after answering an impromptu house call, he decided he had had enough. That’s when he learned about primary care clinics. These offices remain open by giving patients memberships in exchange for a monthly fee that covers most of what the average patient requires. As a result, the patient pays the doctor directly, and neither party is forced to navigate the complicated rules imposed by insurance companies. In September 2016, Hill opened his practice in South Carolina, and he’s not planning on going back. But he’s just one of many. As ACA became increasingly suffocating to patients and providers, many doctors ditched the system altogether while others went into the primary care business.
On average, members of these direct primary care clinics pay as little as $60 per month, with couples paying about $150. Without having to handle heavily regulated middlemen, patients have a clearer picture of how much they spend on their health by being members of such practices. They also enjoy the peace of mind of knowing their doctor.
Studies have already demonstrated that when there is good communication between doctors and patients, treatments are more efficient. This is not simply because doctors are giving patients attention, but also because they are able to tailor a certain treatment to that patient’s lifestyle, health, and activities.
By removing the government entirely from the picture and allowing patients and doctors to once again deal directly with one another, the practice of embracing primary care helps to illustrate the importance of an individual and personalized approach to health care.
For governments and government bureaucrats, everything is dealt with from a collective perspective – after all, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
When government gets involved in health care, everything looks like another number, another statistic. But what bureaucrats fail to understand is that they do not possess all the answers. Only a doctor who is paying attention will be better able to help the individual patient — not a few thousand new regulations.
In essence, what this growing movement seems to suggest is that, even if doctors and patients are unaware of the interventionist forces driving the cost of doing business and receiving medical attention, they’re still driven into the open arms of the free market at some point or another. In the end, needs speak louder than ideology.
I am by no means a defender of our Health Care system, but this is what happened to me:
I had a very rare form of pneumonia. Caused by my own immune system. It took about 6 weeks to get diagnosed – a ton of tests, CAT scan, and a laparoscopic lung biopsy (had to stay overnight in the hospital). I had to take steroids for almost a year. Missed two weeks of work. After a year, I’m well.
Being curious about my condition, I found an on-line group with people who have had the same problem. The people from England, and Australia had completely different experiences. Many spent a year getting diagnosed, and it wasn’t unusual for them to spend several months in the hospital. That system is fucked up!
Keep in mind it’s only the ones that lived that long that are posting about it, the British system deliberately delays treatment for many so that they die first (this is admitted and discussed in their news papers).
There’s one in Kansas City that does great business. For an increased cost they’ll tack on a nutritionist, a personal trainer, and gym access and it all totals up to be cheaper than my fuckin’ health insurance plan. If it was a reasonable drive from me I’d sign up in a heartbeat.
Unless you can find a doctor that can provide all the services necessary when you get diagnosed with cancer or need a coronary bypass for that $60 per month, how do you pay for such things?
Accompanying catastrophic policy.
Which I’ve called for repeatedly to much consternation.
Additional government/AMA collusion worked to destroy homeopathic medicine in favor of “western” allopathic medicine. The number of medical schools was also limited, along with the number of residencies and internships, and professional licensure laws in every state restrict who can practice medicine, what procedures can be performed, and by whom, etc. This keeps doctor numbers low and prices high. Then there is the government collusion with 3rd party insurance beginning under Truman, that put this “benefit” in the hands of employers (so that we NEVER own our own policies) and massive collusion between state legislatures, the insurance industry, and special interest lobbyists insures that we are all forced to purchase coverages we don’t want and likely can’t afford. Of course the entire 3rd party payer system has destroyed the relationship between consumer and doctor. Not only are we not the consumers of our insurance (our employers are in most cases), but we are not the consumers of our health care services (our insurance companies are). At EVERY turn the GOVERNMENT has been there to exert FORCE, protect existing cartels, destroy freedom, undermine choice, and otherwise destroy what should have been as richly diverse and as affordable a marketplace as any other in society that remain basically free from government meddling.
Back when I thought everyone in healthcare was an incompetent idiot turned out to be the high point of care I ever recieved
I’d like to go back to the days where my doctor could also give me a good shave and haircut. At least the conversations would be more enjoyable and I’d walk away looking better than when I went in.
The “government” has skillfully integrated the concept of insurance with that of healthcare and led an overwhelming majority of Americans to believe that the insurance paid for all the healthcare……Now with obamacare the “government has attempted to redistribute funds from those who work for them to those who do not in an attempt to try and pay for it……
I read about universal worldwide coverage over on sovereign man’s website it’s good everywhere but here. Reasonably priced.
I read a huge article once about gov.oversight committees, that basically. Bandaid in hospital A costs x but hospital B it can be five times as much. Charity same way, no one looks at how many charity cases there are. Hospital says they spent this on charity, and feds write the check. If you have insurance can pay $6 for aspirin without insurance it can cost $60. Feds pay nobody cares.