Nick sent this my way and it spurred an interesting IM discussion. The piece is about a month old, but it’s fascinating. The basic gist is that even with single payer (i.e. government) health care, we will still have crazy expenses so long as doctors are incentivized to provide more care.
When you look across the spectrum from Grand Junction to McAllen—and the almost threefold difference in the costs of care—you come to realize that we are witnessing a battle for the soul of American medicine. Somewhere in the United States at this moment, a patient with chest pain, or a tumor, or a cough is seeing a doctor. And the damning question we have to ask is whether the doctor is set up to meet the needs of the patient, first and foremost, or to maximize revenue.
I’m thinking that in addition to encouraging community organization that there has to be some kind of investment regulation of doctors, something in the same spirit as insider trading.
Read the whole thing, it’s long but well worth it:
Annals of Medicine: The Cost Conundrum: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker.
