Even before the pandemic, America was seeing its life expectancy not just embarrassingly trail the First World but actually decline as every other country that was not a war zone continued to improve health outcomes for their people. And this was despite the fact that when one takes everything into account, America is an even more pathetic outlier in that it outspends literally every other country on healthcare, including super-rich tax havens flooded with multi-millionaires.The left will have you believe that replacing America's current sorry excuse for a healthcare system with a single-payer system is a panacea. While having a public option that still takes into account the laws of basic economics has been shown to put massive downward pressure on healthcare costs (see Singapore), this won’t work without a simultaneous effort to create a healthier population.Indeed, uprooting the rot in America’s food supply and all the literal poisons that we allow to be squeezed into our food would do wonders to reduce chronic health conditions among Americans. As a general rule of thumb, if the European Union has banned a particular food additive such as red-40, we should probably follow suit as that is one of the few things those leftist technocrats have gotten right.The other side will simply regurgitate the myth that America still has the finest healthcare system in the world and that the solution is to generally get the government out of the sector in question. This too also does not address the specific fatal flaws in America’s healthcare system.
For one, America’s healthcare system greatly incentivizes the overuse of healthcare services. This is largely due to the fact that barely an eighth of all healthcare spending in America is done out-of-pocket. That, combined with the large sunk costs of the Medicare tax and insane insurance premiums, pushes people to milk the system of as much value as they can to justify paying so much.Unfortunately, when everyone does this, since everything costs money, the only way insurance can cover this overuse is to keep becoming more expensive. These basic principles, usually taught during the first month of a principles of economics class, are seemingly lost on those who run America’s healthcare system.With all this in mind, one of the fundamental shifts America’s healthcare system needs moving forward is to focus on preventative care. This means more robust policy action to create a healthier food supply. For one, we might want to consider using the $100 BILLION in subsidies we give GMO corn and soy every year to seep into almost literally every nook of our food supply and replenish our cattle herd, which is now the same size as it was in the 1950s.In addition, we would do well to actively encourage and incentivize Americans to practice healthier living. While fixing deficits in self-discipline and personal priorities will likely require a spiritual revival, there are once again many areas where competent, proactive policy can help the process along.One of the most crucial changes is to move away from car-centric urban design in favor of increased walkability, cyclability, and viable public transport options. The fact is that simply making Americans use their own muscles to get from point A to point B by creating dense living spaces that are convenient will go a long way in changing the mindsets of car-obsessed Americans, especially the suburban ones.One more major reform that should be introduced into the private healthcare industry is an insistence on price transparency. In any other situation, being charged exorbitant prices without being given so much as an inkling as to that possibility would be grounds for a massive and one-way lawsuit.And yet, healthcare companies are allowed to operate this way with impunity with the excuse that all these additional funds contribute to a more effective healthcare system. And yet again, outside major surgeries (heart transplant, hip replacement, cancer treatment, etc.), the American healthcare system embarrassingly underperforms countries that spend far less than America does. Neoliberal myth debunked.To combat this, while controversial to the average conservative, we might be wise to consider establishing a parallel publicly run healthcare system alongside the private one as an option for all Americans. In Singapore, the public system serves as an anchor to the system as a whole, providing quality healthcare with fairly utilitarian facilities for those least willing to pay. Meanwhile, those with the means can opt for cosmetic upgrades whose increased revenues subsidize the utilitarian option, or they can visit a private facility.A well-run public option tends to keep prices in check in an industry, even amongst private options. This is because the lower prices offered by the public option, especially when accomplished without structural losses, serve as a viable alternative to private options, leaving private companies no choice but to reduce their surplus profits by being competitive. Again, this does require that competent people be hired into the public option. Fortunately, the example of Singapore shows that competent public services are not oxymoronic.It cannot be emphasized how much of a boon to the rest of the economy reining in healthcare prices would be. Should we succeed in obtaining even French healthcare costs (12% of GDP vs America’s 17%), we would be able to save a quarter of a trillion dollars in Medicare and Medicaid spending assuming an even reduction distribution. If we had Singaporean healthcare costs (4% of GDP), the federal budget would be in primary (excluding interest spending) surplus because we would save one and a half trillion dollars in federal spending. This is how important economizing America’s healthcare system is. In addition to not burdening average American families of course.In the next part of this series, we will discuss yet another circus of American life: our munted education system.
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