Tiered Healthcare

The debate in Green Bay is about publicly run health care.

I lived in a nation for six years that had a public health care system. Fortunately, they also had a private clinics and hospitals and did not bother if someone purchased insurance policies for overseas treatment.

One thing we were told in our introduction to the UAE course was — you get one visit to Hospital X don't waste it. Hospital X was a general hospital restricted to locals and those with good wasta. Otherwise ex-patriates were restricted to Hospital Y. Hospital Y's reputation was not great.

The point being, a dual track medical care system resulted. Does anyone think a publicly run health care system in this nation will result in anything different? All one has to do is to look at our public education system. There is no doubt a dual track system there. I fully expect the hospitals and treatment centers in Hollywood will be a lot better than those in let us say South Central Los Angeles.

Many note, one of the drivers of health care is indirect costs — that is, costs associated but not directly dealing with the delivery and provision of health care. Again, look at public education as an example of what will happen.

In any event, the old idea of comparing the costs of lasik & cosmetic surgery to that of other health care. The government and insurance companies do not pay out for lasik & cosmetic surgery — the costs are born directly by the consumer and look what is happening to those costs!