Quit Wasting My Healthcare

Politics of Healthcare Taxation

At my last employer, an uninsured patient paid the hospital somewhere between 3 and 8 cents on every dollar of revenue.  It cost the hospital 40 cents on a dollar of revenue to treat that patient.  Although small, the hospital still turned a profit last year.  How?  The managed care rates paid by employers essentially include a “hidden tax” to cover these costs and pay hospitals significantly more than the cost of care.  This dynamic has effectively acheived a universal care model in the US.

Since the healthcare system in the US is currently paying for emergent care for everyone, no matter what the ability to pay, and employers are already being “taxed” to cover this cost, why would anyone want to take away the healthcare tax deduction status for employers.  If anything, this status should be extended to individuals to level the playing field and encourage more investment by individuals in their own health.  If you don’t allow this structure to exist, the government is simply going to take the additional tax revenue it collects and plug it back into the healthcare system to meets its goal of universal access to care and offset the decreasing level of healthcare coverage offer by employer.

It is time to have individuals take responsibility for their healthcare, teach them how to be better healthcare consumers, and bring some value based decision-making back to the healthcare process.  This is the one approach that will spur efficiency as providers will be forced to focus on the type and level of care that provides the most value to consumers in order to gain their business.