Quote of the WEEK.

America’s health-care problem is not that some people lack insurance, it is that 250 million Americans do have it. – John Stossel

That quote is from his opinion piece Bad Medicine, published today.

Here’s the whole thing:

Bad Medicine

By JOHN STOSSEL
JFS Productions, Inc.
September 21, 2007

Almost daily we’re bombarded with apocalyptic warnings about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance. Senator Hillary Clinton wants to require everyone to have it, to require big companies to pay for it, and have government buy policies for the poor.

That is a move in the wrong direction.

America’s health-care problem is not that some people lack insurance, it is that 250 million Americans do have it.

You have to understand something right from the start. We Americans got hooked on health insurance because the government did the insurance companies a favor during World War II. Wartime wage controls prohibited cash raises, so employers started giving noncash benefits like health insurance to attract workers. The tax code helped this along by treating employer-based health insurance more favorably than coverage you buy yourself. And state governments have made things worse by mandating coverage many people would never buy for themselves.

Competition also pushed companies to offer ever-more attractive policies, such as first-dollar coverage for routine ailments like ear infections and colds, and coverage for things that are not even illnesses, like pregnancy. We came to expect insurance to cover everything.

That’s the root of our problem. No one wants to pay for his own medical care. “Let the insurance company pay for it.” But since companies pay, they demand a say in what treatments are—and are not—permitted. Who can blame them?

Then who can blame people for feeling frustrated that they aren’t in control of their medical care? Maybe we need to rethink how we pay for less-than-catastrophic illnesses so people can regain control. The system creates perverse incentives for everyone. Government mandates are good at doing things like that.

Steering people to buy lots of health insurance is bad policy. Insurance is a necessary evil. We need it to protect us from the big risks–things most of us can’t afford to pay for, like a serious illness, a major car accident, or a house fire.

But insurance is a lousy way to pay for things. You premiums go not just to pay for medical care, but also for fraud, paperwork, and insurance company employee salaries. This is bad for you, and bad for doctors.

The average American doctor now spends 14 percent of his income on insurance paperwork. A North Carolina doctor we interviewed had to hire four people just to fill out forms. He wishes he could spend that money on caring for patients.

The paperwork is part of insurance companies’ attempt to protect themselves against fraud. That’s understandable. Many people do cheat — lie about their history, demand money for unnecessary care or care that never even happened.

So there’s lots of waste in insurance, lost money and time.

Imagine if your car insurance covered oil changes and gasoline. You wouldn’t care how much gas you used, and you wouldn’t care what it cost. Mechanics would sell you $100 oil changes. Prices would skyrocket.

That’s how it works in health care. Patients don’t ask how much a test or treatment will cost. They ask if their insurance covers it. They don’t compare prices from different doctors and hospitals. (Prices do vary.) Why should they? They’re not paying. (Although they do in hidden, indirect ways.)

In the end, we all pay more because no one seems to pay anything. It’s why health insurance is not a good idea for anything but serious illnesses and accidents that could bankrupt you. For the rest, we should pay out of our savings.

The old bromide goes, “Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by human stupidity.” But if you’re someone who thinks “that a coup d’etat occurred in this country on Nov 22, 1963 and the people who have more or less run this country since then have made certain that everyone either plays ball. If they don’t…well, at first they were just killed and now they are just marginalized through a variety of smear tactics and propaganda.“ then the health care “crisis” is of their making, rather than the predictable fuckup of government in cooperation with “the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”

So we ought to expand government’s involvement in our health care so that everybody is covered. (Yes, I’m scratching my head at that “logic” myself.)

I guess I’m part of that vast right-wing smear machine.

When do I get my cut of Halliburton’s Iraqi oil profits?