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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The problem with Obama's health care plan



Because Obama views health care as a "cost" (however necessary) as opposed to an investment (to maintain the highest level of productivity of the nation's most important capital stock--its human capital), he is trying to take a market oriented approach where health care is delivered via a competitive environment that will drive costs down.

The problem with this is twofold:

First, as stated above, healthcare is not a cost but a necessary investment in the nation's most important capital stock--its human capital. Zero wealth is created if the human capital of a nation are not healthy and productive. ZERO!!

Second, you can provide the most basic, low-cost kind of care, but you'll get what you paid for, which is, a healthcare system whereby most people get the barest kind of care (or even sub-standard) and then a small percentage who can pay, get ultra high quality care.

This is kinda like what happened to the airlines when they were deregulated. For most people, getting from point A to point B might have gotten a little bit cheaper, but the service became terrible.

For the rich, there was still first class or private jets.

For air travel maybe in the end it doesn't matter much because all you're really trying to do is get from point A to point B anyway. (Though I can remember how nice it was when you could do that AND get the service.)

For health care this stratification could make a huge difference to the long-term productivity of our country. Staying well is fundamental to being able to work and be productive.

While it's true that maybe many of the 43 million Americans who currently don't have health care will get it, will the structure of Obama's health care system cause Americans who currently have health care see the quality of their care erode? If so, then the net gain from such a plan is zero or worse, it could be a loss.

Remember, this is all being driven by an out-of-paradigm belief system that says, we don't have the money to pay for this. Obama himself even stated, "The Government is out of money."

No surprise that he's penny-pinching this whole thing through.

I can't see how we come out better off with that approach.

1 comment:

  1. Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feinman?

    The Norman Theory of Human Capacity

    What do you care what other people think ?

    ReplyDelete