Why Can't This Country Do Anything About Cost of Healthcare and Higher Education?

One can go to college in a cost conscious way. You can do two years at a community college or junior college. And you can finish up at a four year university. It is like getting a four year degree for half price.

 

Because all the lobbiest represent the Healthcare industry and none of them advocate for the patient.

 

Higher education costs what it does because anyone with a pulse can get a big ass loan to pay for it. Lots of customers with nearly infinite lines of credit. You do the math.

Healthcare is basically just a cartel.

 

Healthcare and education receive huge government subsidies. There is no incentive for the Universities or the healthcare providers to lower prices when the more they charge, the more the government gives them. Look at guaranteed financial aid over time and tuition over time. The more financial aid was provided (often in the form of loans), the more tuition went up. I had a friend that went to law school at Hastings in the 80s. He paid about a month and a half's rent on an apartment per year of law school. Now, with all the increases in financial aid, University of California College of Law - San Francisco (the renamed version of the same school) costs $48,273 per year. A student apartment in San Francisco is pretty expensive, but it is not more than $30,000 per month. The difference is that rent is not subsidized nearly as much as education. The same thing with healthcare. The federal government (aka the taxpayers) is the number 1 source of funding for healthcare in the United States (36%). State and local government pitch in another 15%. That means over half of all healthcare spending in the US is paid by taxpayers. Just like with subsidized education, providers are incentivized to charge as much as possible, because the government is guaranteed to foot half the bill. Even if the patients all pay nothing out of pocket and have no insurance, half the bill is covered. The more you subsidize an industry with taxpayer money, the more they will raise prices to maximize profit.

 

Education unfortunately is because the government backs loans that no bank would ever provide. However if they stopped no one could afford to go except the very rich. We need to follow a different model.

Healthcare because we are the only industrialized nation without a single payer plan. Similar to education we have a government half measure.

EMTALA guarantees healthcare for all for free at the ER. So if you have no insurance that’s where you go and then you don’t pay. That uncompensated care is in the billions which forces hospitals to increase costs on services that are paid which in turn increases costs to insurance companies.

The insurance industry is another huge problem as they are a for profit useless middleman sucking billions of dollars that could be going towards actual healthcare.

We spend more in healthcare per person than any other country with much worse outcomes. Since we are for profit focused we want to treat symptoms and not anything preventative. Preventative would require lifestyle changes mainly diet and exercise. It would require stop subsidizing soy and corn and move towards healthier eating, more walking, less driving, leading to less overall obesity.

Americans do not like the government telling them what they should eat or to get off their fat assess and exercise. But they don’t mind sucking up tax dollars in long term care via Medicaid while suffering from preventable diseases such as type II diabetes.

Fixing the healthcare problem would require an entire culture shift to accepting a single payer healthcare system and more personal health accountability.