Distorted descriptions of American healthcare

****One cannot equate the costs of American healthcare today with those of 1950. While a 2009 automobile is much the same as one from 1950 (and much money is paid for one such today), the extra features of the modern auto are insufficient to explain the increased cost and much of it is regulatory in nature (safety, pollution, mileage) that cost more without changing the owner's selfish appreciation for the car. Compare the nature of healthcare changes with special attention to quality-of-life issues and the 1950 and 2009 versions are hardly the same thing. Moreover, the world benefits from the advances of American medicine (how many have come from the U.K. since the National Health Service of 1944? ). If American doctors and drug companies are beggared by legislative fiat, this font of benefits will likely slow down to the detriment of everyone, American or not. Of course American healthcare costs more because it supports the health and quality of life of people beyond our shores.In previous posts we have addressed the other canards of such comparisons as the highly-flawed WHO report although it is still simplistically repeated by Obama et al. ****
Hedge-fund manager Clifford Asness, writing at Stumblingontruth.com:
Myth #1 Health Care Costs Are Soaring:
No, they are not. The amount we spend on health care has indeed risen, in absolute terms, after inflation, and as a percentage of our incomes and GDP. That does not mean costs are soaring.
You cannot judge the “cost” of something by simply what you spend. You must also judge what you get. I’m reasonably certain the cost of 1950s level health care has dropped in real terms over the last 60 years (and you can probably have a barber from the year 1500 bleed you for almost nothing nowadays). Of course, with 1950s health care, lots of things will kill you that 2009 health care would prevent. Also, your quality of life, in many instances, would be far worse, but you will have a little bit more change in your pocket as the price will be lower. Want to take the deal? In fact, nobody in the US really wants 1950s health care (or even 1990s health care). They just want to pay 1950 prices for 2009 health care. They want the latest pills, techniques, therapies, general genius discoveries, and highly skilled labor that would make today’s health care seem like science fiction a few years ago. But alas, successful science fiction is expensive. . . .
Health care today is a combination of stuff that has existed for a while and a set of entirely new things that look like (and really are) miracles from the lens of even a few years ago. We spend more on health care because it’s better. Say it with me again, slowly—this is a good thing, not a bad thing. . . .
In summary, if one more person cites soaring health care costs as an indictment of the free market, when it is in fact a staggering achievement of the free market, I’m going to rupture their appendix and send them to a queue in the U.K. to get it fixed. Last we’ll see of them.