Honey, can you call around and find the cheapest hospital?

I read Justin Krych’s commentary on Medicare for All. It stirred some thoughts and questions on the subject. If Medicare is good enough for Grandma and Grandpa, why can’t it work for younger folks?

In an insurance pool, controlling costs involves having a balance of healthy and not-so-healthy participants. Adding younger, healthy folks to the current Medicare population improves the overall program. Administrative costs from Medicare are around 2 percent; for private insurance it’s 15 percent or more. And, insurance pools can more effectively control costs because they have greater negotiating power.

A study done by George Mason University Mercatus Center found that the projected cost of health-care expenditures in the U.S. between 2022 and 2031 is $59.4 trillion. If we had Medicare for All, the total health-care expenditures would dip to $57.6 trillion, which is a $2 trillion savings. These numbers are just projections, but staggering. It does show, however, that Medicare for All should not dismissed out of hand. In the United States, we spend the highest percentage of GDP on health care (over 16 percent) of any developed nation in the world and they cover all of their citizens, unlike us.

Some say increased competition could lower the cost of health care. I have never understood this kind of thinking. Accessing health care is not like shopping for toaster or a car. How many people know what their hospital or clinic visit will cost before they go? “Honey, I think I’m having a heart attack, can you call around and find the cheapest hospital?” If you’re sick, you should be able to seek health care.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) at least tried to improve health-care access. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that the first few years of Obamacare were going to be expensive. Giving 30 million more people access to health care for the first time certainly strained the system as they began to attend to their health. There was considerable pent-up demand. Without the ACA, would we have even been discussing “pre-existing conditions” or “removing lifetime caps” during this past election cycle? We all seem to like the good parts.

Removing the individual mandate to have health-care coverage is a big mistake. We all need to buy in, young or old. At some point we will all require health care. I guess we are naturally resistant to being told what to do. But if you own a car you are required to have car insurance. If you have a mortgage, you are required to have homeowner’s insurance. There are insurance requirements in all areas of society. Why should something as critical as health insurance be any different?

Medicare for All may not be the final answer but we still need to work on lowering health-care costs and bringing in those folks that have been left behind. Government has to play some role in solving the health-care problem, just as it does in many other areas we take for granted.

Carlton’s Ken Jorgenson raises vegetables and blueberries in rural Carlton County and always reads the Pine Knot News opinion page. Respond to his article c/o [email protected].