A Consumers View on Healthcare

Consumers realize that healthcare costs are out of control.  They understand that they are vulnerable, but they are unwilling to overpay for healthcare. They revolted against Obamacare and the massive cost-shifting it caused.

Nobody realizes that massive government subsidies, excessive immigration and bad laws since the 1960s have caused this healthcare cost spiral. The government takeover of healthcare sent a signal to providers and Big Pharma that they could run up the cost of healthcare, so they did.

Now, healthcare sits at the intersection of supply and demand.  The high price will reduce demand.  As consumers become free to buy health insurance or not, millions will choose not to buy it, because the cost exceeds the value.

The young and healthy groups will either refuse to buy overpriced health insurance. Some opt to set up health savings accounts,  Others will opt for the lowest cost catastrophic insurance they can find.

All healthcare consumers should avoid any providers that continue to shift costs to them. The cost of indigent care must be removed and returned to private sector charities or county health clinics.

All medical expenses should be tax deductible and health insurance contracts should be effective in 30 days and cancellable with a 30 day notice.  Consumers want to be free to get out if the policy isn’t working for them.

We spend 1/6^th of our GDP on healthcare. That is 16% of $19 trillion or $3.15 trillion a year.  Medical inflation is double the inflation found in other items. 

Healthcare consumers can be identified by group.  50% of them are covered through their employer and their costs are outrageous. 

The young don’t want to subsidize the old. The healthy don’t want to subsidize the sick. The middle-class doesn’t want to subsidize the poor. Everybody wants lower healthcare costs.

Republicans have signed up to clean up Democrat’s mess, but Democrats will fight them at every turn. Democrats wanted Obamacare to fail to justify mandatory “Single Payer Government Healthcare” and 60% Tax rates.

There are lots of parasites feeding off the healthcare system. Lawyers will fight Tort Reform to lower Malpractice Costs. There is an army of bureaucrats who are making a living wringing their hands over healthcare and providing data to support their job security.  There are huge healthcare corporations and health insurance companies, who want to protect their profit margins.

Cities and Counties will fight reductions in federal subsidies, because they have already squandered the money they would need to reconstitute county health clinics.

The cheapest way to lower healthcare costs is to freeze immigration, close the border, deport refugees, bring jobs back and let everybody pay for their own stuff. The free market would kick in and healthcare costs would drop like a rock.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader