Allen Shirley: Facts about health-care issues July 18, 2009 01:00 am — By Allen Shirley When discussing health-care choices, there is a significant amount of misinformation and lack of understanding involving the current private- payer system vs. government-run programs. Critics of the private-payer system often point to life expectancy and infant mortality as proof that socialized medicine is better. The problem is how the stats are compiled in the countries of the world. What can skew the data is that there are too many factors that can influence these stats other than health care. Age, demographics, life_style_ choices, ethnic diversity, crime and driving behaviors often make this data an “apples and oranges comparison.” The self-reporting of world-wide health care (which are actually estimates) can be rather self-serving when totalitarian dictators often under-report their real health-care problems. Our health-care system has the highest consumer-approval rate of health care in the world. Cancer survival rates and other indicators of serious care are excellent. We have a lower life child survival rate because we count “all” births, not just children who survive for a week, as many countries do. Private insurers are not afraid of competition; it’s just that they know, vs. government-run health care, the playing field will not be level. A good example is that Medicare pays providers approximately 83 percent of their actual costs. There’s no negotiation for their services, if you want federal dollars, “take it or leave it.” Hospitals are restricted and compensated by DRGs under Medicare, which sets the government reimbursement regardless of the actual costs associated with the patient’s care. Most of the time, hospitals have been losing with the substandard reimbursement and have been shifting the costs to commercial insurers. Finally, physicians are refusing to take additional Medicare and Medicaid patients or limiting the number that they do take because they are not compensated enough for the services they provide to meet their expenses. Thus, just as the health-care providers mentioned previously, the expenses that are not covered by these government programs are passed on to the private-paying customers. Thus, for the last three decades, the government run health-care programs have been one of the “biggest” contributors to inflating health-care costs for the American consumer by underpaying their part and forcing the actual costs of health care to shift to other non- government entities. Why then, would we wish to put the cause of the problem in charge of the solution! Finally, it is very important for the American people to understand, that the plan Obama and congressional Democrats are pushing has nothing to do with the quality or availability of health care. This so- called plan is simply an attempt to dictate every aspect of American life. When they get control of it, there is a very high probability they will dictate what you eat, drink, smoke, how much exercise you’re required, what activities you can participate in, and which safety requirements are mandatory — essentially everything about your life from A-Z. And each time they dictate a new policy, it will be said that they are doing it to reduce the cost of health care to the American taxpayer. _base_d upon _object_ive study, countries where government-managed health care has been in practice show there are no advantages of government- managed health care over other means and forms of health care. Indeed doing harm by neglect, rationing, bureaucracy and other poor practices at great expense, often lead to bankruptcy of the government entities (see our Medicare and Medicaid). People in these systems are taxed at horrendous rates for less care in which inferior quality is the standard. A great majority of those who have suffered or are suffering in these systems warn us against them. Is there a third option for individual health care vs. the current private pay and government programs? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Allow individuals to create medical saving accounts that get favorable tax treatment and put no strings on these accounts in terms of how they spend it as long as it is for medical care. This would provide incentives for people to take responsibility for their “own” health care. You would now be a consumer who can shop with your own money to buy the best care at the lowest costs. This drives real competition for health-care providers to compete for your business and takes significant control away from CEOs and government bureaucratic intrusion into your personal life. Americans enjoy truly self-indulgent life_style_s as compared to the rest of the world. Americans are more likely to overeat, use illegal drugs, take on risks in activities that can kill or injure, exhibit risky sexual behaviors, misuse cars and guns in ways that can lead to injury or death. The fact that we live as well as we do is a testament to the capability of the health-care community. With lesser medical care, our mortality rates would likely be much higher and our life expectancies much lower. _base_d upon what the current administration is trying to impose on the American people, I am hopeful that the majority of the public will come to the logical conclusion that this is not the change they were hoping for.