Deregulating Healthcare

We are beginning to reverse government regulation of healthcare that has resulted in unsustainable costs. Georgia is ending “certificate of need” requirements and Trump is calling for the end of Obamacare. Medicaid is failing as more Physicians refuse to take Medicaid patients. Corporate healthcare is corrupt and needs to be cleaned up.

Government’s seizure of healthcare began in 1964 with the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Technology was available to apply to medical equipment and US manufacturers wanted government subsidies for these expensive devices. US companies did not want to fund retiree health insurance themselves and supported the creation of Medicare.  Vatican II in 1962 heralded the beginning of the end of low cost Catholic hospitals.

Labor unions had long demanded welfare for workers and the US Constitution had been sufficiently damaged to allow the federal government to avoid constitutional restraints. Companies began subsidizing health insurance for workers in the 1940s in response to wage freezes and war production.

Insurance had always been a cash-flow device with premiums based on risk.  It was never intended to be a welfare program. Healthcare for the poor was done by county health facilities and Physicians’ charity practices.

My grandfather practiced fee-based medicine Monday through Friday in his St. Louis office and operatory and did house calls at night.  He spent his Saturdays treating poor truck farmers in his home town at his own expense and was reimbursed with produce from the farm. Catholic hospitals were owned and staffed by religious orders of Nuns and individual health insurance was $24 per month. My grandfather practiced medicine from 1905 to 1962.

The mandatory treatment for indigent patients in all hospitals began when counties began to abandon their county health facilities. This created cost shifting to paying customers and this began in the 1970s..

In Atlanta, Grady Hospital is subsidized by taxes from DeKalb and Fulton Counties, but also treats patients from all surrounding counties. It started with designating Grady as a regional facility and became a dumping ground.

If you are injured in an automobile accident, you are likely to be taken to Grady and your car will be towed to a government lot that charges $15 per day until you can remove your car.  If you are in a coma, this could get expensive, because your relatives are not allowed to have your car moved from the government lot.. Your ambulance bill will be $800.

Patients need more control over where they are sent for treatment. Counties need to revisit county health services.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader