Healthcare Industry News
Improve health care with real competition
Friday, 16, April 2010
To the delight -- or disgust -- of many, the Democrats' health reforms are now enshrined in law. Supporters and critics alike describe the reform effort as the greatest reinvention of the American health sector in a generation.But Obamacare also represents a missed opportunity. The Democrats' plan doubles down on our health care system's most basic structural flaws, which have stifled competition -- and the lower prices that go along with it -- for decades. The reform package's efforts to expand access to care are doomed unless lawmakers bring health costs down by dismantling impediments to competition.
People of all political stripes agree that our health care system is too costly. In 1970, health spending amounted to roughly $350 per person. By last year, it had risen to an alarming $8,160 per head.Because most Americans receive health insurance through their employers, businesses shoulder the bulk of the cost burden. In 2009, many employers' health care expenditures went up 10 percent. Costs will likely increase by another 7 percent this year. These exploding costs are largely attributable to a lack of competition in the health sector.
