Issue Position: Health Care Costs

Issue Position

If you are big enough, you can dictate what something will cost. That is what the government does.
Or

If you leave business alone, the market will determine the cost. That is what a free market does.

Both systems affect purchases. Raise the cost; less purchases; lower the cost; more purchases. Up, down. Down, up. Prices up; buyers down. Prices down; buyers up. Simple: up and down.

HOWEVER, these forces do not behave this way in health care. Why? Because our politicians have stepped in and messed with the market and government forces.

Politicians have been dictating the cost of health care and controlling its access since the 1940s. Truman put wage and salary freezes in effect after WWII. He was trying to control inflation and the cost of goods. Business responded by offering health care benefits to get around this political roadblock so they could hire the most desirable employees.

In the 1950s, The Hill Burton Act gave hospitals money to build and rebuild hospitals; The hospitals were then indebted to provide free health care for the next 20 years.

In the 1960s, Medicare was implemented on a cost basis. That meant whatever it cost, the government paid. Even with decades of changing this reimbursement method, Medicare has been unable to control its costs. Medicare's projected costs are the big elephant in the room. These projections are the underlying problem that "health care reform" must address.

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