The "Slippery Slope" Loses Speed
When the U.S. financial bailout package was first being debated in Congress, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas denounced it as a "slippery slope to socialism." because it would intervene in free markets. Today, the federal Treasury is going so far as to buy a public stake in some banks, which is at least a partial nationalization. The White House is cooperating closely with European leaders on financial policy--something unthinkable by this White House as little as a month ago. The tide may also be turning on health care with the realization that free market failures won't be cured with even freer markets.
Of course, the problem with health care is not that insurance companies, or even doctors, are going bankrupt. It's that the system is sociallly bankrupt. Employers are crippled by health care costs while American workers are paying far more out of pocket or losing employer-sponsored insurance altogether. Nearly 50 million Americans go without insurance, and millions can't buy individual policies at any price because of minor or major health conditions.
It's the world's most expensive health system, yet Americans are left unhealthier than citizens of other major industrialized countries. And it's all thanks to a completely free for-profit market, aside from government programs including Medicare. Insurance companies and their supporters still argue that allowing people to choose between employer-sponsored coverage and government-backed coverage would lead to government-sponsored health care. Yet nowadays, that's more an enticement than a threat.
Government has its problems, including the cost of Medicare, which spent about little over $10,200 per beneficiary for Part A (hospital, home health care and hospice), Part B (doctor and outpatient) and Part D prescription drug coverage combined in 2006, according to a Nov. 2007 report. But you know what? A private insurance policy premium for a 64-year-old can easily cost $12,000-$16,000 a year for comparable coverage, before copays and deductibles. And that's after the private companies have excluded all of the already-sick. So Medicare's 3% cost of overhead looks better all the time, even though it could do a better job policing certain medical expenses.
If Medicare, or something like Medicare, also covered the young, the estimated cost per person would plummet. Children in federally subsidized plans cost about $2,300 a year (including dental), and younger adults fall right in the middle. And a broadened Medicare program could increase its bulk buying power, including for prescription drugs, to reduce overall costs.
There's a lot to be discussed about how health care should be provided in the United States. But at least the terms of the debate have shifted. Government is no longer automatically the enemy. Regulation is no longer a dirty word.
Insurance companies will fight any threat to their profits with millions of dollars and flotillas of lobbyists. But their free market arguments are in tatters.