The structure of health care industries today reduces productivity
considerations almost to nil as they might bear on cost and price of care.
- The insurers and the hospitals are each oligopolies continually
escalating their leverage over the other one.
- The insurers try to deny people care and the MDs fight back to
keep their income up, by arguing with the bureaucrats and by performing
other procedures and tests.
- The hospitals push to increase the RN workload, and quality of
care declines accordingly, while RNs in the National Nurses United union
have won important laws regulating patient-RN ratios.
And on and on.
Dean Baker's proposal is reactionary. He attacks MDs without tying his
scheme to a similarly effective remedy against the economic power of the
insurers and the hospital chains.
Now let us imagine we have a new commonwealth in place of capitalism.
You might then say that still, medicine is analogous to labor intensive
industries, like hair dressing. Perhaps, but health care and public
health (preventive programs) are far more than your moments with MDs and
RNs.
Charles Andrews
No Rich, No Poor
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