Health Care Costs Again?

Rick Mattoon (and functionally Bill Testa) support a program of reform of Medicaid which is well Thought out, articulate, and Wrong. I still remember the early 1090s, and the famous battles between the Demand and Supply-Siders. Neither Rick or Bill come straight out and state that Funding should be cut for Medicaid, but this is the implication; along with a smell of Eligibility deprivation. There is even a Hint of reference to Medicare, not just Medicaid. It is the traditional Supply-Side argument of ‘Tax Somebody Else’ and ‘It isn’t Our fault that 80% of the World cannot afford Our Pricing structure.” What We have here is a failure to communicate! (Guess which movie!)

Let Us look at the Solution process, and see whether We can formulate some formal Rules of Orders. The First and harshest Stickler Rule which need be established consists of the Statement that People in need of Health Care must get it; any alternative to this Provision would likely produce Insurrection, if not Revolution, in this Country. Definition of this Rule melds down to the Statement: Eligibility Rules will produce nothing usable in the Health Care discussion, as We are going to provision Everyone equitably if not equally. The leads naturally into the formulation of the Second Rule of the Discussion: The Health Care Crisis consists entirely of Who exactly is going to pay for the Health Care, i.e., Business and Corporation, plus Deep Pockets, would deny all Claims; they wish to shovel all Health Care payment off on the Federal Government, funded by the lower Class workers, though they do not wish to limit themselves from any Government health benefit package available. This might be impractical from any point of view.

The Third Rule is based upon the expectation that Pharmaceutical companies, Medical Providers, Clinics, Hospitals, Rest Homes, Doctors, Nurses, and Medical Researchers all think they should be paid more. Much Lobbying effort have been expended in the last Three decades to disallow any impediment to these Groups setting their own Pay Scales. One must speculate such practice may not be the greatest benefit to this Discussion of Health Care Costs. The Third Rule must state that restrictions must be placed on the Above practice–does this sound a little like Demand argument? The most pertinent restriction I have found is practically Socialist, if not Communist; limiting Business Expenses, not to the total listed Cost, but a Tax Commission-set of Desired Payment levels. This would not limit Businesses paying true Costs or desired Wages, simply from total Expensing of what they paid. It works nicely for excessive Management salaries, excessive Patent and Copyright royalty payments, and excessive Research Costs; and even reduces excessive Profit margins at the primary Business level.

Adoption of the above Three Rules of Discussion could realistically re-pattern the entire Health Care argument. Definition of Coverage will be reduced to the proper allocation of medical resources where needed. The methodology of Health Care Cost containment focuses on the real Inflationary pressures in the health care industry. The question of ‘Who Pays’ devolves to the several lines of taxation which will bring equal Sharing of the Burden by Income access. lgl