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the government mandates that the insurance company offer some higher taxes, payment cuts, less innovation, and the politicization of
benefit, you the consumer pays for the mandate in the form of our healthcare system. If you are a politician and have some illness
higher premiums or deductibles. Even when healthcare is not gov- (let’s assume AIDS or depression) and are in public office, the
ernment-run, they insert themselves into the picture, and the result record of your illness will get leaked to the media to stop you from
is higher costs to everyone. running again. Or it will be leveraged against you to vote a particular
way, contrary to your constituents’ desires. Or maybe your employer
We live in a wonderful country here in the USA. Despite those would have the information leaked to them and all of a sudden,
millionaire athletes who have contempt for this country by disrespect- your position gets eliminated. I would rather have our healthcare
ing the very symbol of freedom and liberty; our national flag and an- system decentralized by private individuals where we can hold them
them, opportunities are everywhere due to our capitalistic approach. accountable.
The fact that there is so much freedom of choice is, however, costly.
Duplication of services adds to the costs. The benefit of free choice Do you still want Medicare for all?
and individual liberty to make such choices are immensely important
as mentioned supra. Dr. Alan Preston is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demon-
strated history of working in the managed care and in a broader context many
The other good news here in the USA is that as we continue to aspects of the healthcare industry. Skilled in both For-profit and Nonprofit
get older, we live longer. And the baby boomer generation has Organizations, with a tremendous background in managed care and Population
boomed. And all of the innovations have kept us living longer. That Health Management Epidemiology, Team Building, and Biotechnology. Strong
comes at a price as well. Innovation follows capital, and if one looks entrepreneurship professional with a Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) focused in Public
at countries that are more socialistic or communistic, there is little Health, Health Services Research from Tulane University School of Public
innovation because there is little desire by the citizens to innovate Health and Tropical Medicine. Very involved in risk-sharing contracts, ACOs,
when the government takes the fruits of their intellectual property Medicare Advantage including RAP scores, HEDIS, and STAR ratings
away from them. Also, since innovation and excess capital go hand which helps physicians and health plans alike in reducing MLR!
and hand, it seems rather obvious to me that if 20 percent of our
economy (Healthcare represents about 20 percent of GDP) and one
takes away the private capital market and substitutes it for a govern-
ment-run market, innovation will disappear as well. Is that what you
want with single-payer healthcare?

There are many other cost drivers not mentioned here. My point
is that the private industry is NOT the sole source of cost drivers
to our expensive healthcare system. I mentioned that only 20 per-
cent of the insurance costs are administrative. What does the other
80 to 90 percent represent? Those are claim costs. The money paid
out to the doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies. If the
government was the single payer, they could simply pay that group
50 percent of what they receive now and reduce the costs of health-
care. And that is exactly what happens in the single payer countries;
the providers make a whole lot less. And when they make a whole
lot less, few and fewer decide to go into medicine-related fields, and
that creates shortages. Thus, increased waiting lines. Is that a trade-
off you are willing to accept?

Be careful when a politician dangles the word FREE! Not much
in life is free, and ultimately someone must pay for all the free stuff.
And the payment for the free stuff comes in all shapes and sizes.
Longer waiting lines, fewer substitutes in services, higher deductible,

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