Sarah Palin and health care

Not much is known on her views, but it’s safe to assume she will endorse market-based reforms.

For a glimpse of what’s to come, David Catron writes about a bill she introduced in Alaska, repealing the state’s Certificate of Need statue. This pleases free market advocates, as this will encourage competition within the healthcare marketplace.

Michael Tanner feels the same way.

Comments

Jared At The Doctor Job
here's a quick rundown of her health care quotes of the last few years:
- Health care must be market-and business-driven. (Jan 2008)
- Take personal responsibility for personal health & all areas. (Jan 2008)
- Doctors should manage health care, not bureaucracies. (Jan 2008)
- Personal responsibility & choices key to good health. (Jan 2008)
- Flexibility in government regulations to allow competition. (Nov 2006)
- More affordable health care via competition. (Nov 2006)
(www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin)
Anonymous
For true transparency, hmo’s need to post their fee schedules on their websites as well. Docs I’ve spoken with say “I’ll show you mine if they’ll show me theirs.” Consumer-based healthcare won’t work if no one knows the price.
mottsapplesauce
If you’re a provider, or are employed by one, some if not most actually post their fee schedules on their websites. If you contract with one of these HMO’s, it’s wise
to be aware of the provisions that revolve around pricing so there are
no surprises.
http://www.patmosemergiclinic.com Robert Berry
The CON issue was debated in my community a couple of years ago concerning the building of another hospital. The local newspaper asked its readers if a CON should be granted for this hospital. I wrote a letter that the newspaper published saying that it was the wrong question. The right question is why should there be a CON at all. The newspaper never ran anything that attempted to answer my question…and the hospital did not get the CON and so did not begin construction of the new hospital to the detriment, in my opinion, of the community it was hoping to serve.
My letter is below.
November 20, 2007
To the editor:
You asked if the state should approve Wellmont’s request for a CON. I believe this is the wrong question. It presupposes that ten mostly-appointed Health Services and Development Agency (HSDA) board members should have the power to make such a decision.
Do these 10 Tennesseans really have greater wisdom than the people of Johnson City, who generally want another hospital choice nearby? Do they really have greater wisdom than Wellmont’s management team, who has studied this decision to the point that it is willing to risk its own money?
The real question we need to ask is why Tennessee needs a CON program in the first place. The HSDA website says that “the CON program assures that health care projects are accomplished in an orderly, economical manner.” Where is the evidence that decisions concerning health care projects are less orderly and economical when made locally by the people affected by these decisions than by bureaucrats in Nashville who aren’t?
If top-down, centralized planning in the former Soviet Union ultimately led to its demise, why do Tennesseans insist on following that model for our current health care projects? Perhaps it is time we heed the words of Nobel Prize economist Friedrich Hayek, “Order generated without design can far outstrip plans men consciously contrive.”
The wisest decision would be to eliminate the CON program entirely.
Robert S. Berry, M.D.
Greeneville, TN

Sarah Palin and health care

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