The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Opinion
Today’s Editors’ Choice
- Star Parker: A RyanCare Fix for Medicaid
- Byron York: Spending Bill, Not ObamaCare, Reveals Deep GOP Division
- Ben Shapiro: Racism Is Only Racism if It Comes From Groups the Left Hates
To view all of today’s opinion, click here.
Opinion in Brief
Star Parker: “University of Michigan economist and blogger Mark Perry points out that from 1998 to 2016, the overall consumer price index increased by 47.2 percent. But over the same period, prices for medical services went up 100.5 percent and for hospital services 176.6 percent. Why did health care costs increase two to three times more than everything else? Because hardly anyone pays their own bills. There is no market discipline. Health care markets are distorted from top to bottom by government, regulations and bureaucrats. Nothing is more personal than health care; sadly, in no marketplace are individuals less in control of their own selves. Insurance companies and government decides what you can and can’t buy and what you pay in this totally regulated and bureaucratized business. Perry notes that from 1960 to 2016, the percent of all health care expenditures that were paid by third parties — insurance companies or the government — went from 52.4 percent to 89.5 percent. Perry also notes that prices for the 20 most popular cosmetic medical procedures — various cosmetic surgeries, liposuction, Botox injections, etc. — went up just 32 percent from 1998 to 2016, less than the rate of inflation. Why? Cosmetic procedures are mostly elective. Individuals pay the bill, not a third party. … Those on the Left and those making money off the current program are not interested that we are going bankrupt.”