Medical Care

Almost everyone involved in health care will tell you that the greatest problem in our system is that we pay on a fee-for-service basis. Almost everyone is wrong.

Imagine that you don’t feel well. You have had nausea and vague abdominal pain for a week, and you notice that your belt is getting tighter. You have not seen a doctor in a while and sense something could be seriously wrong. So what do you do?

Most people instinctively understand when government shelters companies from competition it is ultimately the consumer who suffers from higher prices, lower quality, or both. Unfortunately, this bit of common sense hasn’t made much difference in the minds of those arguing Indiana should impose a moratorium on new nursing home facilities and beds.

Even as ObamaCare is trying to self destruct, its advocates suggest a détente in which “Republicans recognize the conservative nature of the law,” in the words of Austin Frakt in Bloomberg News. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), they point out, incorporates some ideas from a Heritage Foundation proposal and a law promoted by Mitt Romney. Those are not, however, conservative ideas, much less good ideas, and are not a “sound chassis” for anything.