Thanks, 60 Minutes
It’s really gratifying when your analysis of an issue is validated on a respected national news show. On last night’s broadcast of 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft had this to say about why health care costs, especially for end of life care, are spiraling out of control:
In almost every business, cost-conscious customers and consumers help keep prices down. But not with health care. That’s because the customers and consumers who are receiving the care aren’t the ones paying the bill.
In fact, as Kroft reveals, 85 percent of health care bills are paid by the government or private insurers, not by patients themselves.
If this sounds familiar, you might be remembering that I basically made the same case in part two of my series on health care reform.
Unfortunately, the health care reform plans favored by the President and Congress will only make matters worse since they further insulate consumers from the cost of their medical care decisions by forcing more Americans to buy basic health insurance and covering more of the population under government paid for health care programs. This is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. Instead of making people more responsible for their decisions, the government is drafting legislation that will make people less responsible for the cost of their health care. As Dr. Elliot Fisher says at another point in this 60 Minutes segment, “In medicine we have turned the laws of supply and demand upside down”.
But don’t take my word for it, watch the 60 Minutes report here or read the transcript.
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by David Boaz or 
by David Bergland, both excellent books on libertarian thought.
