OUR FOR PROFIT HEALTH CARE IS KILLING US 0

After 6 agonizing months of trying to find out what is wrong with our health care system, why we pay twice as much as the rest of the rest of the world but are only ranked 37th in overall care by the world health organization, why 47 million Americans lack any health insurance at all, why the leading cause of bankruptcy has become unpaid medical bills (75% of these people had insurance when they first got ill), why health care costs rise every year at a much higher rate of inflation than any other item in our economy, even than energy and after realizing that all these trends will continue in the future and may get worse, I have come to the conclusion that health care does not belong in the free-market system.

I am not a socialist.

I love the free market system; it has kept all other goods and services within reach of almost all working Americans

Are there 47 million Americans who cannot afford car insurance or the Internet or cable t.v.?

No, because none of the afore-mentioned have doubled in the past 8 years.

One argument that is often voiced in health care’s defense is that new technology has forced prices to rise.

I cannot buy into that, because there has been or should have been other innovations that should have offset that.

All areas of our economy have adopted new technology, but have not had prices soar like health care.

Others mention expensive litigation, but litigation totals only 2% of the total.

Not being able to sue for malpractice would not solve the problem.

The problem is that basically health care is the only area of the free market system where you cannot shop for price.

No one clips coupons or shops the yellow pages for best price for care when they get sick; they just want to get well.

Health care providers can charge any fee they chose, and so they do.

I spent 40 years managing furniture stores.

How wonderful it would have been to have no price comparison to contend with!

I could have tripled my mark up and retired in ten years.

One thing we have found out early in the free market system is monopolies are dangerous to the health of our economy. If one sector, especially a staple like health care, takes too big a piece of the pie, the whole pie is in trouble.

The only solution, as distasteful as it may seem, is some type of European or Canadian plan that covers every one.

Otherwise, there is nothing in our future but pain and suffering.