Now Just Any Old Busybody Can Increase the Cost of Healthcare!
Previously reserved for a small minority of elected officials, screwing with and screwing up our healthcare system is now open to people like you and me!
Tucked away inside section A of today's WSJ is a nifty little account of how two busy-body private citizens (both lawyers if you can believe it) decided they wanted to make healthcare policy in Connecticut without having been elected to anything. What they wanted was more disclosure from insurance companies regarding reimbursement and approvals and they got the governor on board. Sounds good, right? Greater disclosure will bring "accountability" say these crusaders for the common good. Not really. What their "accountability" really amounts to, at the basic level, is paperwork. Paperwork is costly. So here is the spectacle of politicians and free-lance do-gooders who constantly tell us that they can and will make healthcare affordable by squeezing out costs, adding needless costs to the system by demanding increased levels of paperwork and compliance. Of course the immediate effect is a delicious taste of free market revenge, several of the private companies running the Medicaid program in Connecticut have dropped out of the program. Nobody has to engage in any business they don't want to (still, at least), and the likes of Anthem and WellPoint have said 'no thanks' to the Nutmeg state. Connecticut citizens will suffer, but you can thank the ignorance of these busybodies and their political enablers. Medicaid payments are a fixed revenue item set by government. Costs however are variable. Without the ability to increase revenue, why would any company accept what are essentially mandated higher costs? This was as foreseeable as you can get. And we still want more government involvement on our healthcare system?
Tucked away inside section A of today's WSJ is a nifty little account of how two busy-body private citizens (both lawyers if you can believe it) decided they wanted to make healthcare policy in Connecticut without having been elected to anything. What they wanted was more disclosure from insurance companies regarding reimbursement and approvals and they got the governor on board. Sounds good, right? Greater disclosure will bring "accountability" say these crusaders for the common good. Not really. What their "accountability" really amounts to, at the basic level, is paperwork. Paperwork is costly. So here is the spectacle of politicians and free-lance do-gooders who constantly tell us that they can and will make healthcare affordable by squeezing out costs, adding needless costs to the system by demanding increased levels of paperwork and compliance. Of course the immediate effect is a delicious taste of free market revenge, several of the private companies running the Medicaid program in Connecticut have dropped out of the program. Nobody has to engage in any business they don't want to (still, at least), and the likes of Anthem and WellPoint have said 'no thanks' to the Nutmeg state. Connecticut citizens will suffer, but you can thank the ignorance of these busybodies and their political enablers. Medicaid payments are a fixed revenue item set by government. Costs however are variable. Without the ability to increase revenue, why would any company accept what are essentially mandated higher costs? This was as foreseeable as you can get. And we still want more government involvement on our healthcare system?
posted by Donny Baseball at 8:58 AM
1 Comments:
The agent for change in healthcare is the electorate, not pols. Each election is a chance for the electorate to make their voice heard on healthcare issues, and so far, we have not heard much. As usual, the electorate probably won't choose to fix the system until it is completely broken. It might be painful in the meantime, but I am confident that we will have a more or less market based healthcare system eventually, it will just take time.
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