Market Failure of the US Health Care System
There is a marked contrast between the US and Canadian health care systems. Having worked in both systems, I have often compared them staying as in Days Inn as the only choice (for Canadians) as opposed to the US system where you have a choice of staying either at the Hilton and or the Budget Motel. The freedom to choose comes at a price and some may say too much. An opinion piece published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine on Feb 7, 2008 blaming the failure of market forces to deliver optimal health care is surely going raise this issue to the next level of debate in this election year. This article is written by Robert Kuttner, a well known and well respected left-leaning liberal writer-commentator. He is the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, "an authoritative magazine of liberal ideas," according to its mission statement.
He crafted very cogent arguments for his point of view against a backdrop of the US health care system being an outlier against international practices. Medicare statistics indicate that the average cost of health care for every person in the United States is $7,000 and this amounts to over $2.1 trillion. He offered an alternative interpretation how the US health care system ended in the current extreme state of failure. He stated that the pervasive commercialization of health care not only did not create an efficient market but has unintended consequences contributing to the massive market failure. Kuttner claims that market forces for cost containment are generally targeted at maximizing shareholder values and the burden has fallen on the primary care physicians with increased case load, relying on tests rather than hands on diagnostic skill and referring to specialists when none is necessary.
