Michael Moore ' s Sicko Misses Best Solution: Health Savings Accounts

Michael Moore ' s Sicko Misses Best Solution: Health Savings Accounts

Michael Moore ' s new movie SICKO is a humorous and at times emotionally moving squint at the state of U. S. healthcare, but it promotes a solution ( government healthcare ) that would only make matters worse. Instead of more bureaucracy and government control, we should be encouraging competition among healthcare providers and personal answerability among consumers. Health savings accounts, or HSAs, do just that, and are the future of healthcare in America.
Many people understand that a government take - over of healthcare coverage, called a " single - payer " system, is the answer. But if one smartly looks at the countries that currently have single - payer systems, it is fully apparent that they are failed systems, with the riffraff of these countries clamoring for copper.
Because demand goes up when prices go down, the only way a government that provides " free " healthcare can control cost is by limiting access. So hoi polloi in countries with single - payer systems always suffer long waits and deprivation of access to medical care and technologies.
For instance, in Canada there are currently over 800, 000 people on waiting lists for medical procedures. The wait time for people who are referred for surgery is very long and can sometimes take over six months! If it weren ' t for the reality that thousands of Canadians come to the U. S. each year for treatment, the average wait times would be even longer.
Per capita, Canada only has 20 % the number of MRIs that the U. S. has, and only 14 % as many CAT Scans. There are hundreds of prescription drugs available in the U. S. that are not yet available in Canada as they try to control costs.
The latitude in Britain is no better, with over 1 million people currently on waiting lists. In June Britain ' s Health Department form that 1 in 8 patients waits over a year for later surgery, and shortages are forcing more than 50, 000 operations to be cancelled each year.
Waiting for surgery is not just an disquiet; it can mean the discrepancy between living and mortality. For instance, in the U. S. the survival proportion for stage 1 colon cancer is 90 %; in Britain it is 70 %. American women diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer have a 97 % survival rate after 5 years; in Britain it ' s only 78 %.
As Americans contemplate copying these failed systems, society in Europe and Canada are headed in the opposite direction. Germany just recently passed laws to increase insurance competition, Sweden has in duration privatizing some of its healthcare, and millions of Europeans are selection ways to ordain - out of their government healthcare systems.
In Britain there are now over 6. 5 million people who move private insurance, despite the availability of " free " coverage from their NHS. Another 250, 000 self - money each year for private surgery through they can not, or are not prepared to wait. Even the Labour party now favors privatization of healthcare in Britain.
In 2005 the Canadian Supreme quarterback issued a ruling which stated, " The prohibition on receipt private health insurance... is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver moderate services. " Private healthcare clinics are now opening in Canada at the proportion of five per month.
Unfortunately, subservient a socialized system, your body and your life are no longer unbefitting your control.
Isn ' t it amazing that some of the alike people who quibble government ineptness - including Katrina, the many screw - ups in the hostilities on terror, No Child Reclusive Behind, and more - actually image the government would do a good job managing the nation ' s healthcare?
Freedom, choice, and innovation are what have prone us the highest quality healthcare in the world. We absolutely do need copper, but the answer is less government foray, not more. By encouraging consumer - dogged solutions, competition, and price transparency, we can help avoid the healthcare disaster that government control would bring.
One big part of the solution that is coeval beginning is the adoption of Health Savings Accounts. Over five million Americans just now have an HSA set up, and over five billion dollars is contemporary invested in these significant bank accounts.
People who have an HSA can set aside money to pay for future medical expenses, and get a tax deduction to do so. Since you must have a high - deductible health plan to contribute to an HSA, these plans hearten people to more carefully spend their healthcare dollars, since money they don ' t spend stays in the HSA.
The settlement is that medical providers once and are competing for customers by lowering prices, and increasing quality and convenience. Just now we are seeing plummeting prices on prescription drugs, and low - cost medical clinics spring up in Wal - Mart and other retail locations.
As more and more people procure HSAs, we will not only see a benefit for the consumers, but we will also effect to see more people who take a proactive opinion when it comes to their health. A Health Savings Account owner who exercises and chuck right will likely have a much larger balance in their account by the time they yield.
These changes will emanation in a healthier and wealthier group of retirees and a smaller burden on our tax system in the future.