The Worst Thing About Healthcare is Socialism

How did healthcare in the U.S. get so messy, convoluted, and inefficient? Why is it so hard to know what a simple visit to the doctor - let alone a surgery - will cost?

We spoke with Michael Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. He enlightened us on the 'original sin' of healthcare policy, plus several other massively harmful government interventions that have set everyone back (like Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare). It's all led to one surefire result: that patients rarely get the treatment they deserve.

Instead of the basic, buyer-seller market dynamic of capitalism that provides customers so many options at grocery stores, government intervention has created something closer to socialism: an ever-growing web of conflicting incentives among doctors, insurers, and politicians.

As Cannon summarized, "Government intervention is creating so many problems in healthcare that the government has to intervene more and more and more, to try to solve the problems that it created."

This video also touches on some smaller, but still damaging, government interventions in healthcare: COBRA in 1986 and the Clintons' failed Health Security Act. And our story editor, Trevor Kraus, makes a cameo appearance to ask: Which group of people got screwed the most when the government tied health insurance to employment?

DEEP DIVE: If you want to go even more in-depth on the topic of healthcare, check out our blog "Five Myths About Healthcare".

#Healthcare #GovernmentIntervention #Medicare #Medicaid #Obamacare

LEARN LIBERTY:

[homewall]

Force authoritarianism, then blame liberty.

[SBEngine]

The problem is that the solution is in the hands of the problem

[JackJackrabbit]

As someone who lives in denmark, this so called healthcare appears to be the most terrible implementation I could possibly have imagined. To me it creates the question, how in the world did you guys mess this up so badly. First of, for emergencies (like with the appendix) we literally have a special number dedicated to police, fire department, and medical emergency. Secondly, you don't sign up to a company for small things, but to a private practitioner, and you go there personally to do so, that means you know them and they know you, they have your files for your usual needs and so on. Thirdly, the taxation, I pay tax so that even if i don't need help right now I am paying for someone else's medical bill, and when it is my turn others will pay for me. there are so many more things I want to say but it can probably be summed up as, how the **** did it get this messed up on your side of the Atlantic ocean?

[broark]

Veterinary care isn't technically much different from human healthcare, but is almost an order of magnitude cheaper. Because no one makes the political argument that animals have a "right" to healthcare, it's left alone to be just another industry - and it simply works.

To that point, there are examples of human healthcare simply working in small enclaves. In my hometown of Oklahoma City, the Surgery Center of Oklahoma is private-pay-only and offers a wide range of routine surgical procedures from good surgeons who were just sick of the system.

I found out about it after seeing my insurance pay over $30k for a knee surgery in a regular hospital system and leaving me with $7k in bills, whereas if I had just paid out of pocket at the Surgery Center, the total cost would have been a bit over $4k. That's the kind of thing most people could finance in a pinch, or cover with insurance for even less if only that's what the rest of the industry looked like; but as it stands now, going to a regular hospital to be faced with $37k worth of bills without insurance is a crushing blow.

[nmuskier]

2007- $350 deductible for a family.
2016- $1400 deductible.

Thanks, "affordable" care act!👍

[whatsup]

I have a question. If someone look at hospital with lower price or higher quality service it encourage competition. In that case what if u r unconscious due to a car accident in that situation u don't look at cheap hospital with good quality but hospital near u. In that situation is this out of pocket system works? Is it possible u can negotiate with hospital in that condition? Could you please answer my question

[antyrak]

I live in the UK. Where it's even worse. Everything is NHS. Most of the time they say "it'll Go away by itself" or "just take Paracetamol". My step sister had a couple worrying cysts, especially worrying because of her father died of cancer. Once she even had an infection of her lymph nodes and she was completely ignored by the system. Even when she got pneumonia as a side effect of COVID. She only got antibiotics when she was in a really bad situation. Couldn't breathe and her oxygen levels were really low. Even then the treatment she got from the doctors was terrible. While her partner's sister is a total hypochondriac but she gets the best treatment ever.

[BlazeGuitarLessons]

I like my HSA a lot but I wish they'd get the government out of health care in the US

[CanadianOptionsTrader]

Socialized healthcare seems to work pretty well in my country. 🇨🇦 It's definitely not perfect, but I've never heard of anyone here going bankrupt or losing their house due to medical bills.

[chrisbrotherton]

Starting Jan 1, 2022, the No Surprises Act allows consumers to request a good faith estimate (GFE) for expected healthcare services.

There are limitations as a GFE doesn’t require a listing of unexpected services so more rare and potentially expensive charges could still result.

There are still gaps that aren’t addressed.

All the more reason why the direct primary care movement deserves our attention.

[godlessprophet]

Thanks to military service, I have Tricare.
Tricare doesn't cover chiropractic treatment for the bad back that my military service gave me.

[Pyriphlegeton]

I'm european. I can choose my doctor, I can go see him every day and all expenses that are deemed medically necessary by the insurance are covered in full. And we have a lot of government intervention. We also pay less per capita than the US (as does every country on earth).
So it seems government intervention can be done well.

[tommyssl]

I have VA health coverage and I cannot wait to get on private insurance this year. In the last two years, I've been sick and hurt several times and every time I call the VA for help, they said, "either wait a month to see your local doctor or drive 40 minutes [Monday through Friday, 8 to 10 am] to see urgent care at your closest VA facility." My yearly exam got pushed off six months because the VA refuses to hire enough doctors. If I need to see a specialist, the ones with the VA generally say no unless you're old or have a terminal or life-long service connected issue. I couldn't even get help when I might have had COVID because the VA told me to drive to the main VA facility when I could barely get out of bed. The VA is great for giving me money every month but is terrible for actually providing it's mandate of healthcare when you need it.

[ryanjacobs]

Ah yes the staple of socialism, paying for things with lots of money

[JDoors]

Regarding Obamacare: It came at the perfect time for me. I was down on my luck, couldn't afford insurance, didn't qualify for other programs, but they had to cover me under Obamacare. I had three medical issues before I got back on my feet and they cost me nothing. I have NO IDEA what I would have done without Obamacare. Die, I guess? So ... politically I'm against it, but ... I kind'a needed it so ...

[stevetaxpayer]

Everything claimed in the video is true but there's a whole lot more wrong with our healthcare system. Specifically, in addition to the market forces issues detailed in the video, our healthcare delivery system (i.e. hospitals, doctors, clinics, pharmacies, drug manufacturers, etc.) are all structured and processed-engineered around the insurance industry) including Medicare/Medicaid instead of being structured and processed engineered for maximum products and services delivered at the lowest possible price like the way Walmart and Costco operate as retailers.

Imagine how difficult and how expensive to would be to get your car repaired is every repair shop and every auto mechanic in the country focused on pleasing and were managed by those sleazy auto warranty companies instead focusing on how they can most efficiently deliver auto repair services at the most competitive price.

To put it another way, our current healthcare delivery providers do not have to keep their patients happy and healthy, they just need to keep the insurers happy.

[Darian]

And this doesn't ever cover how we have a crisis in the USA of primary doctors, but insurances refuse to accept new doctors.

[JuanDavidJaramilloXD]

follow up video suggestion... you should look up into health care tourism; I know it's a growing industry in latin america, precisely 'cause first world citizens (especially north american people) can find top tier medical facilities and care for far lower costs and access it immediately.

[cwad]

Yeah I lived under socialized medicine back in the military... Talk about a crap show. Blew my shoulder out (it definitely felt way different than anything I ever experienced) and told them immediately, hey this isn't a normal injury, I need an MRI. Well they put me in physical rehab for six months... After the end, nope still feels same/worse. Well okay let's see the schedule, how's 4 months sound for the MRI? (Got it in 3.5 because someone cancelled) couldn't go anywhere else, and yeah blew out my labrum and capsule. Let's see after the MRI let's get you scheduled for surgery... How's two months sound? So a year after the initial injury I finally got the surgery I needed (and was active duty mind you). Socialized medicine sucks.

BTW the doctor who did the first surgery was pcs'ing (permanent change of station) to Spain in two months, so he did a botched job and had to repeat the process again a year later. Lulz.

[DanJohnsonAffordableAviation]

THREE WORDS: Direct Primary Care. No insurance accepted; no Medicare accepted; typically ~$100 a month for unlimited primary doctor visits. I have no stake in this; use your favorite search engine and look further. This is the best free-market medicine I’ve seen.