Saturday, June 19, 20041
Capitalism and the health care system
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorializes on how capitalism is one of the driving forces behind our broken health care system:
We now have a health-care system whose primary mission is not delivering health care. Instead, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and, in fact, many hospitals exist to make money. That's their first priority, and also their second and third priority. The product they sell happens to be improved health. But they jack up the prices on the product and restrict it to those who can afford it.
. . . As more and more working Americans find themselves without health insurance, our faith in the ability of capitalism to provide a fundamental asset of American life is being sorely tested. Sometime in the next decade, we'll be forced to admit that government will have to step in and shore up the safety net by guaranteeing basic health care to all Americans.
We now have a health-care system whose primary mission is not delivering health care. Instead, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and, in fact, many hospitals exist to make money. That's their first priority, and also their second and third priority. The product they sell happens to be improved health. But they jack up the prices on the product and restrict it to those who can afford it.
. . . As more and more working Americans find themselves without health insurance, our faith in the ability of capitalism to provide a fundamental asset of American life is being sorely tested. Sometime in the next decade, we'll be forced to admit that government will have to step in and shore up the safety net by guaranteeing basic health care to all Americans.
Comments
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Trent
The question is: do you believe this to be true? Did you post it without comment in agreement or disagreement.
Post a CommentAllow me to comment. Today's health care system can not be credibly identified as "free-market" or "capitalist." The level of governemnt funding, interference, and regulation is tremendous compared to other industries. One may have credible disapproval of a free-market health care system, but such disapproval can not be credibly based on the status quo, and must be based on something else.
3:22 PM