Government Can’t Fix Healthcare | 5 Minute Video
Why is the government so bad at healthcare? Why did Obamacare make it more expensive than it already was? Is there a solution? Former Member of Congress Bob McEwen explains.
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Script:
Why is the government so bad at healthcare? They’ve been at it for seventy-five years and still can’t get it right. It’s expensive. Access is spotty. It’s mired in bureaucracy. And it’s fraught with waste.
Obamacare was supposed to fix all this, but instead, like every other government healthcare program before it, it just made things worse.
Why?
Because the government is a third-party payer.
Let me explain.
Suppose you are going to buy something for yourself. You have two priorities: price and quality. You want the highest quality for the lowest possible price.
Say you’re buying a television. You have many options: the size of the screen, the quality of the image, the price. Only you know which one best suits your needs and your budget. And a lot of companies are competing for your business. You do your research; you make your choice.
This is called a first-party purchase – the person paying is the person using.
Now, let’s suppose that either the price or quality is not controlled by you; in this case, you are buying something for someone else. You care about the price because you are paying for it, but you are a little more flexible on the quality. A good example would be a wedding gift – say, a coffee maker.
You might think, by the time it breaks they’ll forget who gave it to them anyway…the cheaper one will be fine.
All of us have bought things for others we never would have bought for ourselves. We care about the price because we’re paying for it, but not so much about the quality because we’re not going to use it.
Or, suppose that we’re going to use something, but we’re not going to pay for it. Then we’re concerned about the quality because we’re consuming it, but the cost is not as important because we’re not paying for it. Any father who ever got roped into paying for an open bar at a wedding understands this program. Nobody ever orders the cheap stuff when it’s free.
These are called second-party purchases. The person paying is not the person using.
And now, for the coup de grace: when it is not your money paying for something, AND you don’t use it. Then you’re not concerned about either the price or the quality.
Suppose the boss gives you $150 to buy a door prize for the office party. In a store window, you see a six-foot tall stuffed frog marked $149.00 You think, Oh, that’s perfect – let’s buy it. The raffle winner is awarded the six-foot frog. Everyone laughs at the gag.
Now, this is called a third-party purchase – a purchase that is made with money that is not yours (therefore you don’t care about the cost) to buy something you’re not going to consume (therefore you don’t care about the quality).
Here’s the point: By definition, all government purchases are third-party purchases. The government spends other people’s money on things it won’t consume. It doesn’t care about the price or the quality. Thus, there will always be waste in government spending.
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I kind of zoned out when he started comparing looking after the health and safety of humans with negotiating a price for a new TV. Why is payment even involved?
anyone in 2024? i just saw this. my city has 3 hospital companies competing. so they have tons of walk in urgent care centers all over town. if you have insurance they take it. if not you pay cash at a decent price. no appointments needed, hurt or sick but not bad enough for the ER but too bad to wait for appointment at clinic, just walk in and get seen. they are making bank too from volume. building more as wait times of 6 hrs are forming cause they cheap. meanwhile the hospital ERs are empty with no wait time for true emergencies so you get better and faster service with more staff. last time i went to ER for major issue i was on a bed surrounded by like 10 doctors and nurses within 3 minutes of walking through the doors. Screw driving 45 min across town to the VA. I would pass 4 hospitals going to the VA. plus the womens and also childrens for 6 total. I pay for private health care and got a dr 10 min from me and 4 urgent cares 10 min from me in different directions. also my dermatoligist is across street from primary doctor and 1 urgent center. eye doc if needed on back half of primary clinic. primary does same day appointments and walk ins too. several doctors in the building.
for real these health companies are spending big bucks to compete and get market share. i dont want the government ruining that! I like being able to walk in without appointment and get seen immediately by the best doctors in the area. Doctors from over seas are coming here cause the health care and hospital companies are paying top dollar to get the best in the world! The government would hire the lowest bidder doctors so the gov could pocket more money. the gov wouldnt reinvest by opening more urgent cares either.
B.S. My wife got cancer and excellent treatment with Obamacare. You look pretty well off not everybody is. Part time employees often don't get employer paid. Shopping doesn't help because when you change plans your doctor might not be in the network. If you're sick before you get a plan they may not sell you one. When Trump got covid he went to a government run hospital with no out of pocket expenses. Medicare for all we all pay in we all get access. Yes it should get oversight for waste,fraud and abuse. No body should have to use GO FUND ME or bankrupt when they get sick. You said Canadians come to the US well many from the US go to Canada for medicine and Mexico for treatment.
Actually what made obama care worse was the republican party defunding the bill. What made that bill worse is the republican party would not allow the full implementation of that law. Tell the truth.
There is no place on earth where fully private healthcare has succeeded. This is written by someone who either knows nothing about the industry or is an industry stooge. This is how conservatives lose.
Laser eye surgery is not comparable to ordinary healthcare because it's not something you desperately need to keep you alive. Eye laser surgery is more into the cathegory of plastic surgery.
I would much rather trust a democratically elected government with my healthcare than some private corporations whose sole concern is profit. Yes private corporations are better at spending money than the government if your sole metric of judgement is profit. However, that’s a terrible metric to use for healthcare, even if it might be a good metric for TV. Healthcare should be high quality and affordable, and no one should trust some greedy corporations sole worried about profit to meet that standard
So much garbage. Government is so bad at healthcare yet all of those elected to the senate and congress keep their government care? Hmm. Prager is a charlatan.
To make matters worse, much of the testing done is done solely to prevent law suits.
Friedman polemics vs the empirical evidence of other systems.
If we had the Australian system in this country, everyone would have access to cheap and quality care, and it would allow for secondary private insurance to come in and compete with each other for the lowest prices.
The United States Government cannot fix anything.
Sometimes a third party purchase can be good. If you are negotiating milions of medicines and you actualy care you can make pressure to get a better deal than someone that actualy needs that medicine now and just for himself. Goverments around the world makes good deals because they care
450000 Americans die every year universal healthcare needed in usa
Do you know anyone that wants to give up their Medicare? No you really don't have choice this can be seen when you change employers who change plans then go to your doctor and find out that he's not in the network.
3:48 that's the wrong symbol
I'm all for free market health care, but how would we address the quality argument when a poor person gets cancer but can't afford the same coverage a rich business executive can buy? People who want government control of health care but who aren't necessarily socialists make that argument.
Sounds good to me, we live in the US, we can just look at Canada and clearly see that it doesn't fare well for them there
Obama is actually a socialist or communist. It's against freedom and boom.
Health care is 1/5 of our nations GNP or more with that much money in the business our corrupt and evil government is drawn to it like a fly to butter not to mention the control of human life
Unites States healtcare cost per capita is $12530
United Kingdom healtcare cost per capita 4653 Pounds. Total misinformation in this video. A person in the UK spends less than half the money trough tax.
The Netherlands has a similar system where you can choose your quality of your insurance. Healthcare cost per capita Netherlands is.$7046,86. The Netherlands healthcare system is ranked 24 places higher than the US and everybody is covered .
EMS should be free
but the government can make laws against price gouging
An how is this different from Insurance companies?
of course they could.. Tax everybody another 10 % to 15 % and change some rules and laws..And take total control of the healthcare system with the government.. Not too difficult to do if they really wanted to