Things to do on the Glide Path
Obama now says that we're on the glide path to Universal Healthcare. Well, here's some things to do while were on it.
As I see it, healthcare is a simple supply and demand situation, like any other business. Prices are very high for two reasons: First, there is a scarcity of resources, which means that supply is low. Second, demand for healthcare is extremely high since it is frequently non-deferrable and of life-and-death importance.
Therefore, you have very high, non-deferrable demand, and relative low supply, due to very high educational requirements and very expensive equipment.
How to fix the problem? Giving EVERYBODY insurance is totally INSANE. That is the equivalent of simply printing more money (an Obama favorite solution). It is particularly INSANE because it adds another 48 million people to the demand side and adds nothing to the supply side.
What we must do on the glide path is to add to the supply side. Here's a few ideas:
1. Build more hospitals. Hospitals are ENORMOUSLY expensive and represent a very large percentage of medical care costs. This is also an excellent economic stimulous.
2. Build more free clinics.
3. Bring in the military to assist in training medical workers (other than doctors and highly trained nurses). During World War II, the military trained tens of thousands of medics and hospital orderlies and even nurses to deal with the tens of thousands of casualties of war.
Free clinics would not be as good as private care, but you get what you pay for.
4. Build more medical schools and nursing schools.
5. Re-evaluate the educational requirements of both doctors and nurses. Is it really NECESSARY for doctors to go thru 4 years of college before entering medical school? Could there be new categories of less-qualified semi-doctors to deal with less critical problems in free clinics and free hospitals?
6. The federal government needs to take a more active role in testing pharmaceuticals. Drug companies claim that their high prices are justified because of all the testing that they do.
So get the Federal Government more involved in drug testing so that prices can be reduced.
7. Put more pressure on for the production of generic drugs.
8. Have government subsidize the manufacture of high-tech medical equipment. The more equipment that is available, the lower the cost.
Further, this is an EXCELLENT economic stimulus. Encouraging the manufacture of high-tech medical equipment would help to rebuild the American manufacturing and technology sectors.
Additional, these are EXPORTABLE products, so they help the balance of trade.
To sum up, if enough work was done on the SUPPLY SIDE of healthcare, we would not need ObamaCare, because there would be plenty of healthcare to go around.
Draft 2: 8/4/09
As I see it, healthcare is a simple supply and demand situation, like any other business. Prices are very high for two reasons: First, there is a scarcity of resources, which means that supply is low. Second, demand for healthcare is extremely high since it is frequently non-deferrable and of life-and-death importance.
Therefore, you have very high, non-deferrable demand, and relative low supply, due to very high educational requirements and very expensive equipment.
How to fix the problem? Giving EVERYBODY insurance is totally INSANE. That is the equivalent of simply printing more money (an Obama favorite solution). It is particularly INSANE because it adds another 48 million people to the demand side and adds nothing to the supply side.
What we must do on the glide path is to add to the supply side. Here's a few ideas:
1. Build more hospitals. Hospitals are ENORMOUSLY expensive and represent a very large percentage of medical care costs. This is also an excellent economic stimulous.
2. Build more free clinics.
3. Bring in the military to assist in training medical workers (other than doctors and highly trained nurses). During World War II, the military trained tens of thousands of medics and hospital orderlies and even nurses to deal with the tens of thousands of casualties of war.
Free clinics would not be as good as private care, but you get what you pay for.
4. Build more medical schools and nursing schools.
5. Re-evaluate the educational requirements of both doctors and nurses. Is it really NECESSARY for doctors to go thru 4 years of college before entering medical school? Could there be new categories of less-qualified semi-doctors to deal with less critical problems in free clinics and free hospitals?
6. The federal government needs to take a more active role in testing pharmaceuticals. Drug companies claim that their high prices are justified because of all the testing that they do.
So get the Federal Government more involved in drug testing so that prices can be reduced.
7. Put more pressure on for the production of generic drugs.
8. Have government subsidize the manufacture of high-tech medical equipment. The more equipment that is available, the lower the cost.
Further, this is an EXCELLENT economic stimulus. Encouraging the manufacture of high-tech medical equipment would help to rebuild the American manufacturing and technology sectors.
Additional, these are EXPORTABLE products, so they help the balance of trade.
To sum up, if enough work was done on the SUPPLY SIDE of healthcare, we would not need ObamaCare, because there would be plenty of healthcare to go around.
Draft 2: 8/4/09
posted by Jack W. Orf | 10:34 AM
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