Shifting costs does not control them
By Pete Perdue
The big elephant in affordable health care is neither Obamacare nor the proposed Romney-Ryancare voucher plan, but inflation. A game-changer is needed in controlling health care cost. Shifting it from the government to the retiree does not solve the issue.
The competitive forces that constrain cost in other segments of our economy are nonexistent in the health care sector. Health care providers believe they are acting responsibly if their charge for a specific procedure is no higher than 10 percent above the average charge levied by other health care providers in the surrounding area. Their competitors use the same pricing philosophy when they subsequently raise their prices. The cost issue is further exacerbated when technological improvements in the health care sector fail to result in cost reductions similar to the way they do in other sectors of our economy.
Perdue retired from the Navy and the automotive industry. He lives in Afton in Nelson County.
October 22, 2012 - 6:58 AM
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