(PRWEB)
July 26, 2006 -- As Health Savings Accounts grow in popularity, there is growing
fear among those who want to nationalize healthcare that they will not be
able to put the cat back in the bag. There are already over 3 million
HSA owners, and by 2010, the Treasury Department estimates as many as 45 million
Americans will be covered by HSA
plans. They will have billions of dollars invested to cover future
medical expenses, and by then it will be politically impossible to take that
benefit away.
With
a high-deductible health insurance plan, money is invested tax-free into a
Health Savings Account. There are different types of investments to
choose from -- anything from savings accounts or money market funds, to stocks,
bonds, and mutual funds. Invested wisely, an account could accumulate
over $500,000 by retirement. That money can be used to pay for healthcare,
tax free. And best of all, it affords the freedom of choice when paying
for healthcare.
If
proponents of a single-payer system were to ever have their way, individuals
would be at the mercy of a government bureaucrat when it comes to their healthcare.
To see what this might look like, all one has to do is look at the state of
health care in Canada, England, New Zealand, and the parts of Europe that
have not yet abandoned single-payer systems.
Proponents
of a single-payer system tend to point to Canada or England as countries that
cover all their citizens with quality healthcare, while spending less money
per person than the U.S. But if we look a little closer, we see that
these publicly financed health insurance systems are breaking down, the quality
is low, and the costs can be quite high. Here's what Canadians have
to deal with if they need medical care:
- Long
waits. Hundreds of Canadians go to Detroit and other U.S. cities
every year for procedures like CAT scans, which they can obtain treatment
in a matter of days. In Canada, the wait is typically six months.
Currently 876,000 Canadians are on waiting lists for medical procedures.
- Difficulty in getting life-enhancing procedures done. If a Canadian
is having a heart attack, they will be treated right then. But if the
surgery is considered "elective" (meaning that possible death is not eminent),
the wait could be months or years. Average wait for cataract removal
is 18 months. Average wait for a knee replacement is one year.
- Increased risk of dying. The average Canadian waits eight weeks
to see a specialist, and another nine weeks before getting treated.
This is even the case with conditions that are likely to get much worse if
there is any delay in treatment. For example, the median time for a
mastectomy is 14 weeks, enough time for the cancer to spread to other parts
of the body. In fact, 28% of those diagnosed with breast cancer in Canada
die from it, while the mortality ratio in the U.S. is only 25%
Things
don't look any better across the ocean. Each year the British National
Health Service cancels 410,000 surgeries because of resource shortages.
According to the London Sunday Times, there are currently over 1 million Brits
awaiting elective surgery. Thomas Cook, a British travel agency, is
even considering offering "sun-and-surgery" packaged trips to Indian hospitals
for British citizens fed up with low standards and long waiting times for
surgery.
The
British and Canadian governments have the power to make healthcare "free",
but they are unable to control its costs. So the costs become longer
(and potentially fatal) delays, and fewer innovations.
It's
not surprising what is happening. Universal health insurance systems
always encourage over-consumption by patients, and such over-consumption always
leads to financial crises. The result is inevitably broken promises
about universal access and quality care. Because there are always limited
resources, single-payer systems tend to overspend on primary care for the
healthy, while denying more expensive specialist care to those with serious
medical problems. This is because most people (voters) are healthy most
of the time, and the sick and dieing are less likely to be able to organize
into a political force.
What
makes the United States such a great country is the "freedoms" we enjoy.
Though our freedoms seem to be constantly under attack, there is still no
nation in the world that has the freedom of the press, freedom of religion,
freedom of association, or the free markets that we have in the United States.
As anyone who understands even a smidgen of economics knows, free markets
encourage competition and innovation, which lead to lower prices and better
quality.
Though
the U.S. system of health care can not really be considered a "free-market",
it is certainly much more free than any single payer system. Some of
the benefits we see as a result of our current healthcare system include:
- U.S. medicine produces the best outcomes for virtually every patient,
from premature babies to elderly cancer patients.
- American companies are the chief source worldwide of new treatments
and procedures which each year are used to save millions of lives.
- U.S. medical training and research facilities are the best
in the world
Though
Canadians might have to wait a year or two for hip replacement surgery, they
can get the same operation done on their dog in less than a week. This
is because veterinarians are competing for that business, finding innovative
ways to deliver service more quickly and less expensively. Another example
is laser eye surgery, a procedure that is rarely covered by insurance, so
laser eye surgeons must compete on the basis of cost and quality. While
costs for most medical procedures have been going up every year, the cost
for this procedure has dropped by 80% over the past decade.
Unfortunately,
U.S. healthcare policies still tend to limit competition, restrict consumer's
freedom to choose, and discourage consumers from shopping for value.
Thus, there are too few choices and there has been little attention paid to
price and quality of service. The answer is clearly not more government
intervention, but instead letting competition and the power of the marketplace
drive down prices and increase quality and access to care.
There
is increasing recognition that third-party health insurance payers are actually
a major cause of escalating medical costs and the decline in the quality of
service. The increasing adoption of HSA
plans has already begun to cause greater transparency and competition
in the medical marketplace. There are now physicians available by phone,
medical kiosks setting up in malls, doctors that accept only cash (and charge
significantly less), and others competing directly for the consumer's healthcare
dollar.
Don't
be fooled by the politicians who advocate a single-payer system, claiming
their only concern is the uninsured. If a single body (such as a government
bureaucracy) controls healthcare, they control one seventh of the national
economy. And everywhere in the world that central control of the economy
has been tried, it has been a colossal failure.
As
public policy reforms centered on individual choice continue to gain wider
footholds, the result will be greater prosperity, greater choice, and a better
value for all. The culture of dependence and entitlement will begin
to fade, as millions of individuals demand further policy reforms that will
reinstate the values of freedom and personal responsibility that helped establish
this great nation.
As
more consumers turn to health savings accounts, the market will respond.
Innovative providers will begin to compete more on price and quality of service,
and those that provide the best value will get wealthy doing so. And
all consumers will benefit.
By
Wiley Long - President, HSA
for America. We makes it easy for people
to learn about and set up health savings accounts that best meet their needs
at the lowest premiums available. "The
Complete Consumer's Guide to HSAs" report is also available to download.
