What our Extra Tax Dollars Will Buy

As the Obama administration moves forward with its health care reformation plan it is imperative that we take the time to sit down and take a good look at exactly how the proposed plan will change the way we receive our care. Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute has published a concise piece listing some of the more controversial elements of the new bill. He argues that significant tax increases across the board will be needed to finance the proposed overhaul. I have listened to numerous people say they have no problem paying more in taxes if it means they receive health care in return, but we need to take a deeper look at just what these tax dollars will buy us.

Several months ago I had a lengthy chat with a practicing doctor about the problems in our medical system. In the discussion he eloquently summed up the central issue of the US medical system by saying that “Americans want three things from health care: they want it good, they want it cheap, and they want it now and in the end it is not possible to have all three at the same time”. Currently in America we tend to have really good health care that is administered in a relatively fast amount time when compared to other countries, but we have to pay a large amount of money to get it. Countries such as England that have government ran health care tend to have moderately good health care for much lower prices, but they have to wait much longer than Americans to receive care. Take these two cases from England as examples of some of the wait times that are experienced in such systems. Nor are such examples unique to England. All countries with large, government ran health care systems have much longer average wait times to get into a doctor’s office and much longer average wait times in a waiting room to see the doctor than in the US. In many cases the average wait time is 3 or more times longer than here at home. On top of this even advocates of a system like England's have admitted that quality of care offered in such systems is typically mediocre when compared to the system we currently have.

So as Obama pushes this policy forward we need to ask ourselves if we prefer our health care cheap, mediocre, and slow, or good, fast, and expensive.