Friday, February 3, 2012

Bernanke Testimony

Yesterday Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified in front of Congress about the state of the economy. One of the key points in his discussion was when he called rising health care costs the "elephant in the room" that no one is talking about seriously yet.

I've raised the question of how to control health care inflation many times in this blog. I've noted that all of the other industrialized countries use some form of national health program. With only one source of payment it's possible to control the cost of health care far more effectively. The free-market model in America is one of the reasons we have the highest cost of health care in the world today.

Is there another way to reduce the cost of health care other than limiting and controlling what will be paid for health care? I haven't heard of one yet. I'd love to find one, anything, that we can do to stop this runaway train from bankrupting our country. As it is now, rather than controlling what we pay for health care in America we're going to end up limiting how much health care you get. That's the most profitable model for the medical industry in this nation.