Our capitalist system actually works pretty well. The free market however is desperately broken with respect to healthcare. Further, changing payers from for-profit to the government won’t fix healthcare. In fact it will probably make it worse. Just look at all of the things the government has done well…

Medicare, the government’s current payer is bloated, underfunded, and dysfunctional. It overpays physicians (accidentally), offers little oversight, and uses no evidence-based methods to determine effectiveness or efficiency of practice. In short it pays poorly for everything and does little or nothing well. It is not an improvement over the current private sector. In Texas as many as 40% of physicians in some areas refuse to take medicare because it does not pay enough to supply services without losing money on every patient visit.

Anytime you allow anyone to come between you and your physician you’re at risk. The modern-doctor patient relationship now has an obligate third partty- the payer. Personally if we must have a third party I actually trust the for-profit guys more than the federal government.

One of the major failings of modern American medicine is the sense of entitlement inherent in Americans. Everyone wants everything and they want it now. Scroll down to the discussions regarding consciousness monitoring. I received frankly abusive and vitriolic messages from readers because I refuse to use or support these monitors. There’s a growing body of evidence that they simply don’t work.Yet some patients insist that it’s their right to have all the monitors- even those with no proven benefit beyond the profit of the monitor company.

In short, there’s no good quick fix.Patients need to be well educated and informed. They need to demand effective and efficient care- and only effective and efficient care. Doctors and patients all need to have some risk in the relationship to provide incentives that are well aligned with responsible use of resources.

Keep the government out of your healthcare unless you want healthcare with all of the efficiency of the postal service and all the compassion of the IRS.

The Insurance Companies are out to make $MONEY$. They are Beholden to their STOCK HOLDERS!

We are Loosing our Sense of Self Worth and Family Values Due to our CAPITALIST SYSTEM!