Whether it is Obamacare, Trumpcare or Ryancare, one thing can be deduced: the healthcare system in the United States is broken. Thanks to cronyism, big government and state intervention into healthcare, medical care has become too expensive. This is usually the result of constant intervention.
In other nations, where there is universal coverage, taxes soar, wait times increase and quality diminishes. In many places around the world, a government-run healthcare system is unsustainable, and sometimes requires a two-tier system just to maintain the status quo, which is a short-term remedy to a long-term problem.
So, what exactly is the solution to this conundrum? Perhaps it is time to look to Clinica Mi Pueblo in Southern California as the model to adopt.
This clinic, which operates eight medical clinics in this region that primarily serves Hispanics, maintains a cash system with transparent prices and does not accept insurance. Essentially, the medical clinic utilizes a market-based approach to healthcare, a business model that should be embraced across the United States and around the world today.
Here is a simple, transparent list of prices for certain health services:
Who knew healthcare was that simple? You don’t have to worry about deductibles and premiums, what you’re covered for and what you’re not. And, most importantly, there isn’t some middleman, usually a bureaucrat or an insurance agent.
This is the type of solution that President Donald Trump and the Republicans should espouse rather than just Obamacare 2.0. Government-managed healthcare, like middle-of-the-road healthcare, is a train wreck, and must be abandoned in favor of Clinica Mi Pueblo’s system.
Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is optimistic that this is something that U.S. may implement one day:
We will only get medical costs under control when we move the medical system in the direction of the Clinica Mi Pueblo and the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, which are both based on the sensible, cost-controlling medical business model of: a) transparent pricing, b) out-of-pocket cash payments like almost everything else consumers purchase (food, clothing, housing, transportation, computers, travel, etc.), and c) minimizing the role of third-party payers like insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid. The future of affordable health care is not more government control, third-party payments, mountains of bureaucratic paperwork, Medicare/Medicaid, and opaque pricing, but rather more market-based solutions, direct out-of-pocket payments, less paperwork, less government involvement and more transparent pricing. The future of affordable medicine will instead be based on market-based solutions like the business models of Clinica Mi Pueblo and the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, along with the very promising trend in “direct primary care” which is another business model that bypasses insurance companies by charging patients a monthly membership fee ($25 to $85) that covers everything from office visits to basic lab tests.
Kudos to Clinica Mi Pueblo for its successful market-based approach to providing very affordable medical care at its eight clinics in California, it’s a business model that deserves much greater attention as an antidote to the rising health care costs that inevitably result from third party payments, government-managed health care, and Obamacare.
Will it happen? Perhaps when the U.S. government runs out of money and becomes entirely insolvent.
–AM
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