Health Care is Sick in America

American politicians are arguing about health care in another attempt to reform the broken system. America’s health-care system is by far the costliest in the world. Despite health care spending per person is almost double that of other rich countries, millions of Americans are without health insurance and quality of health care is not much better than elsewhere. Beyond the large numbers of uninsured, the problem is that it continues to grow at an unsustainable pace and is starting to have a huge impact on business and employment. The health care industry has been quite good at raising fears of rationing by more government intrusion in the health sector but the reality is that in America federal & state agencies (Medicare, medicaid, etc) already control a large portion of the market. The key to reform, regardless of political affiliation, is that the majority of Americans who have health insurance must come to terms with the fact that the current model of receiving any treatment covered by insurance without incurring some of the costs is a recipe of disaster for everyone. The problem with health care is  that market forces have been paralyzed by overregulation and until health care consumers can shop based on price, America will continue to get sicker and bogged down by its blindfolds in an ever more competitive global economy.