It's the COST of health care, stupid

This is from my personal blog at Townhall.com. I address the difference between health care and health insurance in this article. I explain that the problem with health care is not that people do not have health insurance. The problem with health care is the cost of health care keeps rising at an unsustainable pace. I hope you enjoy my article.

The health care debate has come down to whether or not the government should pay for everyone's health insurance. While it seems to be a noble cause and idea, it neglects to recognize the fact that health insurance is different than health care. Health insurance is an important aspect of the cost of the health care puzzle. But the problem with health care is the rising cost of health care. Merely providing health insurance by paying for it with taxpayer money does not do anything to solve the problem of the rising cost of health care.

Health insurance is an important aspect of the cost of health care because it is the vehicle within which health care prices are negotiated. Without such negotiations, people would find themselves in a position of negotiating price of a life saving medical procedure only after they were certain that they needed it. The health insurance apparatus enables the negotiation of the cost of medical procedures apart from the pressures of actually needing the procedure done. In other words, if you need heart surgery to save your life, it is worth everything you have or will have to get the surgery done. But if the prices have already been negotiated by the insurance companies, your cost will be much less to have the life saving surgery. Without health insurance, it might be common to pay $50 for an aspirin because there would not be a check on the doctors' prices.

Continue reading the article here.