02 August 2011

The High Cost of Medical Care

Listening to the Dennis Prager radio show this morning he had on a guest who was with the charity Cure International. It was part informational and part solicitation for funds. They were describing the cost of a medical procedure they could provide that would cost about $1000 to perform in some 3rd world country but would cost tens of thousands to $100K in the U.S. Assuming that part of this reduced cost is due to volunteer work and donated goods that is still an incredible difference. There has to be some way to bring down the costs of care in this country. If we were to equate this to another type of product or service then that is approximately a 1000% markup. It would seem that we should figure out a way to lower the costs of this type of care in this country instead of leaving the price as is and demanding more taxes or paying higher insurance premiums.

1 comment:

Richard said...

Two systemic causes of high prices for medical care are: tax free employer paid premiums and third party payor (gov't and/or insurer). Until this economic distortion on the one hand and perverse incentive structure on the other are eliminated, the costs will remain inflated.

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