(This is one of a weekly series of posts entitled “A Centrist’s Platform”. The complete collection of Centrist’s Platform posts is available on a single page, or via a special RSS feed.)
Many of the subjects I’ve commented on as part of my “Centrist’s Platform” series of posts have been either obscure, or at least not sexy enough to garner attention in the popular mass media.
That’s definitely not the case when talking about health care or health insurance this election season. Perhaps that’s part of why it’s taken me so long to get around to writing this post — it’s a hot topic, one that has been a recurring theme in this blog, and which it is difficult to say much that I either already haven’t said…or which seems ridiculously self-evident, at least to me.
You see, in this country we have a bit of an inconsistency — we have some of the most advanced medical care available in the world. We’re a prosperous enough country (ignoring temporary economic blips) that it seems preposterous that anyone in this country shouldn’t have access to the very best medical care.
Unfortunately, such an observation runs flat into another reality — we also have the most expensive medical care in the world. Part of the reason for advancement of our medical technology and our pharmaceutical arsenal is that there is a lot of money to be made, a fact that tends to attract capital and research attention.
Throw in inefficiencies inherent in the system (overcapacity of certain “sexy” technology, drag from inefficient billing, systemic burden of litigation and the defense therefrom)…and you have the chaotic mess we have today.
Politicians seem to be having a field day tossing around ideas, be they national health care, mandatory private health insurance, malpractice reform, or what-have-you, in an attempt to garner popular support to further their own political careers.
Annoyingly, it seems that much of the debate focuses on maximizing access to health care service or coverage by health insurance plans. Very few folks seem to be looking at the fundamentals of the problem — that health care is expensive and is becoming more so at an alarming rate — and how to address that.
Improving the availability of health care is a worthy goal…but society won’t be doing itself any favor if, by initially achieving that goal, it dooms itself to bankruptcy in the future.