How Politics Increased the Cost of Healthcare in America

Preface to my book.

Preface

Societal evolution has changed many ways we think and behave. Our healthcare system has also evolved. While an undergraduate student in the mid-1970s, I wrote a paper on health maintenance organizations. At that time, it was a little-known concept and most people talked about medical care not healthcare.

Today our politicians are talking about access to healthcare. By that they mean having an insurance policy. It galls me to hear that access to healthcare is no longer about whether a sick person can get in to see a doctor but merely whether the person has insurance. Politicians don’t seem to understand that people can be financially bled with insurance premiums to the point that they can’t afford the deductibles and co-pays. They can’t see a doctor, even though by the politicians’ standards they have healthcare.

While writing this book I realized that I have two points. One point is that healthcare costs are going up because government intervention has limited supply while encouraging demand and favored insurance, corporate hospitals, and drug companies over private citizens, this book. The second point is that healthcare costs are going up based on a false philosophy of science of life. I cover the second point in the companion book, The “Science” of Medicine and the Dollars It Generates.

It is my hope that the two books will contribute to the debate about our healthcare system. I hope to help you think and apply the basic principles of economics and application of statistics to healthcare.

I encourage us to place removing the impediments to health ahead of corporate welfare, whether the corporation is an insurance company, corporate hospital, or pharmaceutical company.