but we all KNOW that healthcare costs are the long term problem with the US budg

http://www.multiplier-effect.org/?p=3351Yes, but we all KNOW that healthcare costs are the long term problem with the US budget.

We also know WHY healthcare costs are the problem:

1) extending the last year of life.

2) experimental procedures.

We also know why it’s a difficult problem to fix healthcare costs:

3) Because there is no market system by which doctors can choose to deny coverage for experimental procedures and extending the last year of life. Because it is expressly against medical ethics. Because it is profitable for businesses to deliver services. Because it is bad for business to reject a customer, who will just go elsewhere for the service.

4) Because there is no market system for controlling extension of the last year of life and experimental procedures, we must create a non-market system (a bureaucratic system) or “DEATH PANELS” to deny coverage for experimental procedures and extending the last year of life, in order to contain costs.

We also know why bureaucratization of experimental procedures is dangerous:

5) Because experimental work is expensive, research and development conducted by trial and error – most of which fails to produce beneficial results.

We also know why conservatives (republicans) dislike the bureaucratic method:

6) Because it is impossible to work harder, apply more discipline, and use one’s own initiative and resources, in order to secure access to the best doctors, facilities, and experimental treatments.

And it’s disingenuous to argue that this is a financial problem. It is in fact, a series of moral hazards – in the broadest sense of the term.

(The technical, mixed-economy solution, would be to transfer the costs that were rejected by the Death Panels for experimental procedures and extension of life to those poor people in need of health care. I’m not advocating that. I’m just suggesting that it’s the only known solution that avoids perverse incentives for all parties, while maintaining a closed healthcare ecosystem.)

We already solve the problem of transfers by subsidizing insurance companies for automobile drivers. There is no reason that we cannot sponsor (insure) non-profit, insurance companies that specialize in coverage for the underclasses, and make use of the visa/mc network to manage payments for services. We insure banks. Why can’t we insure insurance companies as a proxy for serving the disadvantaged?