I think that the government should make sure that everyone gets fair and equal health benefits. I mean for example that it would be illegal for health insurers to offer lower prices to some strong and organized groups then they offer any other individual.
Another thing is that I think is necessary is to forbid the pharmaceutical and medical suppliers from advertising their products and from pushing their products to doctors and health providers by the bribery methods they use today- for example they offer expensive vacations to so called conventions to persuade doctors to prescribe their drug over the competition.
Another issue is that in case some company has monopoly over a certain field (like a certain type of disease), then it should be checked and supervised so it wouldn't be able to extort arbitrarily large prices. Since drugs are protected by patent, there should also be a check on the drug company's power to exploit the patent.
Last, I think there should be a distinction between basic health care where prices should be strictly regulated, and "premium" services where there should be less regulation. Premium could be for example- choosing an expert doctor, better hospitalizing conditions etc.
There are certain things a government can do to protect the consumer... however... the question is... do you really think the government (IE a bunch of Lawyers) is capable of REFORMING the health industry or any other industry. Everything they do screws things up. Look what they did to the mortgage industry. They said they did it in the name of fairness... and they convinced themselves that they could CHANGE how it worked... but the unientended consequences were catastrophic.
A more relevant example of an unintended consequence: Regulating prices. If we tell companies they cant charge more for customers that are more costly to them, they will charge more for everyone. If the government then puts caps on prices... this will always cause shortages. This may seem obvious to us, but to politicians... its apparently not.
If the ultimate goal is to pay all American citizens health care premiums with taxpayer money...(Assuming the public wants this); it should NOT be done by the government believing it can run the industry better... this is so stupid, and destructive. It should be done in a similar method to school voucher programs (Which works very well). Give people a voucher adjusted for their age and a few other non-controllable factors, let them use it to buy whichever health care insurance they choose, and have some sort of oversight to minimize fraud.
DONT try to RUN health care, dont beleive that lawyers are smarter than doctors, dont tell hospitals what they can and cant pay.... any of this tinkering will cause far more problems than it solves. If a hospital is run poorly (Like pretty much every public hospital in my area), no one will choose that hospital as part of their plan. Just like school vouchers, if no on likes a school, the school will be shut down.
Topic: What about national health regulation ? (Read 1324 times)