United Liberty

Did you know that the federal, state and local governments are responsible for 60% of health care spending in the United States? That’s the word according to the Congressional Research Service, as noted by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK):

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released the following statement today regarding a new report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) that shows that 60 percent of health care spending in the U.S. ($1.35 trillion out of $2.24 trillion) is controlled by state, local and federal government.

“Defenders of the Reid bill say we need ‘reform’ to keep insurance companies honest. A better question would be: ‘Who’s going to keep the government honest?’ This new report shows that the so-called ‘reform’ effort is based on a false premise. Government is already the majority-shareholder in our health care system,” Dr. Coburn said.

“Many of the problems we face today in health care, such as cost and lack of choice and access to quality care, are the consequence of government interference. These problems will only get worse if Congress spends $2.5 trillion on legislation to put the government in charge of more of our health care decisions,” Dr. Coburn said.

Patients in government run health plans have fewer options and lower quality of care:

• Medicare denies medical claims at twice the rate of some of the largest private insurers.
• Nearly one in three (29 percent) Medicare beneficiaries who were looking for a primary care doctor had a problem finding one to treat them, according to a June 2008 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) survey.
• Forty percent of physicians refuse to accept Medicaid patients.
• Patients in the Indian Health Services receive fewer options.

What we have seen over the course of the last 40 years or so, really since Medicare and Medicaid were passed by Congress in the late 60’s, is health costs soring because patients aren’t concerned with the costs of health care.

After all, it isn’t the uninsured crowding hospitals, it’s patients on government-run health care programs. That is, as I noted earlier today, one of the problems with employer-based coverage as well. People don’t get a real sense of what they are spending, so they aren’t concerned about costs. That has to end to have a functional health care system.