Health Care Changes

New Demand, New Supply Needed

The current discussions and congressional bills say nothing about how more health care capability would be created.

If 40 million more people are added and get free medical care and unlimited insurance, how would the current number of doctors, staff, hospitals and clinics possibly match the new demand?

Apparently no one has thought about where from or how a 20 percent increase in demand will be supplied. It could take at least 15 years before you could increase the number of doctors to meet demand. It could take 6 years or more for a 20% increase in medical technicians, nurses and other staff. It would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to increase hospitals and clinics and all their medical equipment by 20 percent, and who knows how many years it might take.

If we want to make medical care more available and cheaper the supply must be made larger than demand. Medical care delivery must be expanded by about 30 percent. Otherwise, very high prices will follow the short supply, extremely long lines, and necessarily, rationing.

Everything in shortage is invariably rationed. Extremely short supply is always followed by rapid price inflation. Exactly the opposite outcome of what the well meaning, but uninformed profess to be seeking; reduced access and higher costs, and probably lower quality.

A surplus of medical services will markedly increase access and dramatically lower costs, and probably provide much higher quality.

I don’t think the President, Representatives or Senators actually care about access or costs at all. They just want to create another crisis so they can seem to fix it with a massive and expensive increase in government entitlement programs that gives them massive political power and intrusive influence over your life decisions and imposes communist style wage and price controls over more than 10 percent of this nation’s economy.

All under the guise of an eminent crisis that hasn’t changed much for 70 year, except for the steady decline in the number of citizens who can’t get health care to almost zero. And does nothing to make them capable of paying for the valuable care they’ve gotten.

Increase supply, discourage frivolous and excessive medical suits, and permit interstate health insurance competition; problem solved.

Oh you might say, “How does that give free health care and insurance to poor people?” It doesn’t, nor should it. It’s about improving health care. It’s not about increasing welfare benefits. Most of them already get low quality, rationed, excessively bureaucratic health care for free; which is about what it is worth. They don’t need improved access or lower costs.

THEY DON’T PAY ANYTHING NOW!