Health care costs are the real culprit

Leftists seem to think that people have a right to have health care covered regardless of cost, and therefore the government should just compel insurance companies and the taxpayer to pay for everything. This off-target abstraction doesn’t address the true problem: runaway costs and prices.

Forty years ago, insurance companies covered more when costs were reasonable. Now that costs are out of control, it is harder to make the argument they should. Passing a law like “Obamacare” that attempts to pay for everything without regard to the costs in the end fixes nothing, because in the end the costs come to the taxpayer.

Stop applying emotional platitudes like “human rights” as a reason for forcing ill-thought policies on Americans. Let’s figure out how to make the price of procedures, services and products come down. Pass laws for all hospitals and practices to clearly list prices so nothing is a mystery to patients and insurance companies. Disclosed pricing will cause the legions of billing people to shrink, because there will be less need for hospitals, insurance companies and Medicare to fight with each other over bills. Let’s go back to bills written by real people with pens, and eliminate computer codes; computers have not improved billing, they have made it worse by removing thinking and common sense.

Lastly, let’s destroy the malpractice lawsuit industry. If something goes wrong, allow for remuneration to cover additional days in a hospital, correction of problems, and a reasonable rate for lost wages. If a doctor intentionally hurts someone, punish him; don’t make an insurance company pay out millions.

Who knows, if we attack the price problem, and insurance companies and patients are able to afford medicine, maybe Medicare will become an irrelevant program.

Harold M. Knudsen

Arlington Heights