Shocker: Over Four Decades Government Health Care Spending Has Grown Faster Than Private Spending

Proof • July 20, 2009

The proponents of government health care keep telling us that we need government health care to to control health care costs. The problem is that the government has done an exceedingly poor job of controlling the cost of the government health care we already have.

My new study, published by the Pacific Research Institute, shows that — across four decades — the costs of government-run health care have risen far more than the costs of private care.
My study compares the cost increases of Medicare and Medicaid with those of all other health care in the United States. The key finding: Since 1970, Medicare and Medicaid’s costs have risen one-third more, per patient, than the combined costs of all other health care in America — the vast majority of which is purchased privately.
Since 1970, Medicare and Medicaid’s combined per-patient costs have risen from $344 to $8,955, while the combined per-patient costs of all other US health care have risen from $364 to $7,119.
Medicare and Medicaid used to cost $20 less per patient than other care. Now they cost $1,836 more. (And that’s even without the Medicare prescription-drug benefit.)
In fact, if the costs of Medicare and Medicaid had risen only as much as the costs of all other health care in America, then, instead of costing a combined $807 billion last year, they would’ve cost a combined $606 billion. That savings of $201 billion would have amounted to more than $1,750 per American household last year alone.

Why would we think that the government, which already can’t control costs in Medicare and Medicaid, would ever be able to control health care costs for everyone in the country without resorting to draconian rationing of treatment?
Heck, the federal government can’t even operate Amtrak at a profit despite nearly a decade of growing ridership numbers. The point is, while our current way of doing health care is far from optimal, putting the government in charge is hardly a fix.

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics

http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Not only that but Medicare and Medicaid aren’t paying their own way. They are setting their reimbursements by law leaving it to the privately insured to make up the shortfall.
robert108

Thanks for putting this one on the front page, Rob:

http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/entry/government_run_health_care_more_expensive_than_private_sector_care_-_study/

Already had it on the Reader Blogs.
robert108

Had it yesterday morning, but as I have told you many times, I appreciate it getting on the front page; it’s important information, and the front page gets more attention.
You might want to check out the one about the half million dollars a pound frozen ham as a part of the “stimulus” package.
http://unreligiousright.blogspot.com/ UNRR

This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 7/20/2009, at The Unreligious Right
http://www.birdshopper.com/ Tom from Bird Houses

For me it isnt about the amount of money that is spent but what/how it is spent – there is so much wastage within these government agencies. With some business efficency budgets could be cut and services improved.
Bat One

Poor progressives! You’re trying so hard to discredit free market capitalism, that you completely overlook the fact that the only thing that makes any sort of government alternative remotely viable is abandoning freedom of choice and forcing everyone to participate, include particularly those with the will and the means to take care of themselves.
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml Angry Vertebrate

For some people Bat One, we can handle a little bit of ideological impurity if it means that people can live healthier and more prosperous lives.

Universal health care can be more efficient. Being sick sucks. Why not choose the best system?
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml Angry Vertebrate

Good point WOOF. The elderly have by far the highest health costs.

And don’t forget that whole aging population thing. That’ll lead to faster growth.

Poor conservatives. You’re trying so hard to pretend that govt health care is more expensive, and less efficient, than private insurance. But you’re not smart enough to see that you’re wrong.
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml Angry Vertebrate

Oops, in-case conservatives don’t understand the growth thingy:

As the elderly formerly on private plans pass away, and the more recent to join the elderly are part of the Medicare program, the proportion of elderly with private plans declines. This effect should reduce the cost of private plans relative to the public plans. (But that whole spiraling out of control health care thing means costs are rising for everybody.)

P.S. Considering the extra health issues that the elderly have, the Medicare cost statistics are extremely good.
Bat One

For some people Bat One, we can handle a little bit of ideological impurity if it means that people can live healthier and more prosperous lives.

AV,

Mistake Number 1: its not ideology. Free market capitalism IS the best path to prosperity. And in this instance, prosperity includes better, more available healthcare. Without the prosperity nobody’s healthcare is paid for.

Universal health care can be more efficient.

Mistake Number 2: This is what the great legal scholar Perry Mason referred to as a “fact not in evidence.” You are talking about a new entitlement, a monstrous one, when in fact the current healthcare entitlement, Medicare is effectively bankrupt, and our other major entitlement program, Social Security is tottering on the brink of insolvency. To think that forcing everyone to be a part of yet another federal boondoggle, regardless of the rationalization, will be any more workable or effective is simplistic, self-delusional nonsense.

Furthermore, there is nothing in either the current House proposal or that in the Senate, that does anything whatsoever to reduce the cost of healthcare. Other than government mandated rationing. Like any other product or service, healthcare pricing is based on supply and demand. And while the Democrats’ various proposals will certainly increase demand, even above the natural increase due to baby-boomer retirement, there is no provision that addresses the need for increased supply. Which means that prices will continue to escalate as government tries to contain costs by rationing, the very action that runs counter to what those on the Left have complained about all along. To heal the patient, the government will be forced to mandate a reduced level of care and medication.
robert108

Universal health care can be more efficient.

I guess you can spin the word “efficient” to mean something other than what it actually means, but this is simply untrue. Govt administered healthcare cannot be more efficient than the private sector, for two reasons: The overhead cost for administering such a gigantic program, which is absent from a free market system, and the overhead cost of collecting the money through the IRS, which is also not present in a privately-run system by individual doctors and hospitals.
Those two additional overhead costs, which are required by every govt run system of any kind, prevent anything approaching cost efficiency.
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml Angry Vertebrate

Republicans and progressives should both be pressuring Obama and his cronies to implement a more efficient health care system.

Free market capitalism IS the best path to prosperity. — Bat One

I know you cannot prove that. The most successful economies have always been heavily regulated and featured a mix of public and private ownership. Free market capitalism may be the best path to prosperity for 10% of the population, but we live in democracies. To force free market capitalism on the other 90% that would benefit more from other systems is anti-democratic.
WOOFX

Who insures the elderly ?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Ah, missed it there.

I’m just playing catchup on a bunch of links I’d sent myself from my phone while out and about today.

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Shocker: Over Four Decades Government Health Care Spending Has Grown Faster Than Private Spending

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