History & Future of Health Care

        There was a time when there was no medical insurance.  Towns had family doctors.  There were no hospitals.  Sick people stayed at home and were nursed by family, and doctors made house calls.

        Some doctors had nurses and rooms for critically ill or injured patients.  Doctors with medical specialties were located in larger cities with more rooms and staff. 

        There was no insurance so people paid for their own health care. If they were poor, the doctor would have to wait for payment or barter.  The doctor did not always get paid, but seldom withheld care from anyone.

        Sometimes the doctor was paid with eggs, meat, or firewood, but most people tried to pay the doctor with cash.  Medical doctors were the more affluent and respected members of the community. 

        Eventually hospitals were built to care for the sick.  They did provide a service, but were not profitable.  In order to keep the doors open, they started to ask people to pre-pay for their hospital stay.  It worked. 

        Insurance companies recognized a new market.  They sold the public on the security and convenience, and they sold the medical providers on reliable payment.  I blogged about this on March 8, 2012.  The title was The Greatest Marketing Job Ever in the US.

        Unionized industries promoted offering employees medical insurance because it was cheaper than giving them wage increases.  They were not farsighted enough to see how this could bite them in the future. 

        Medical insurance providers increased costs due to increased paperwork and patients no longer asked about cost.  When the government got involved costs increased.

        Patient care changed.  People had to get pre-approvals from their insurance provider for some services. They were often restricted on their choice of doctors.  Doctors began to run unnecessary tests to protect themselves from lawsuits.  Health care decisions were no longer between the Doctor and the patient. 

        Health care providers jacked up prices and then discounted to the insurance company.  This was unfair to any individual who had no medical insurance.  With medical insurance, health care costs are five times as high as if there was no medical insurance. 

        It drives me crazy when I hear politicians interchange the terms health care and medical insurance.  They are two separate and distinct things.  Government keeps trying to fix a problem that was caused by insurance with insurance.  

        How do we fix it?  The only solution is to encourage true major medical insurance, and health care savings plans.  It should be illegal for any health care provider to have any direct contact with an insurance company.  We also need tort reform to prevent frivolous law suits.  Heath care costs can and would be reduced by 50% to 80%.

        Unfortunately, this will probably never happen.  We have gone down a path of no return.  Any rational person knew that Obama Care could never work.  It was a step down the path to single-payer or Medicare-for-all which will also not work in the long run.  The last step is government provided health care, which will mean higher taxes and lower quality health care.  Not a bright future, but definitely where the country is going. 

“Trump did not bring division.  Division brought Trump.

If you don’t see that, then you’re part of the problem.”

Ava Armstrong

God bless President Trump and guide him to make America great again.