Health Care Pricing

Today the Senate is going to hold hearings on how drug prices are set in this country.  Apparently the incredible rise in prices has finally gotten their attention.  Does anyone really believe the BS from the drug companies that they need all of our money for "research" today?  But not money from every other industrialized country that has a national health program?  The United States pays more for drugs than anyone else in the world.

But drug prices are just the tip of the iceberg.  Total spending on health care increased 5.3% last year, the biggest increase since 2007.  Health care now consumes 17.5% of our country's GDP.  Sure, drug price increases jumped 12.2% last year but that was just part of the equation.

When is America going to figure out that we don't have to spend more money on health care than any other nation on earth?  When are we going to accept the fact that all of our money doesn't produce better results?  After all, we're still pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to longevity and almost every other measure of health care.  The bottom line is when you have a health care system based on profit (in other words, capitalism) then you're going to have the most expensive health care in the world.  It's just that simple.

We don't have a profit incentive for our police, do we?  Or firemen?  Or any of our armed forces?  No, expect them to perform at a reasonable level of pay from our taxes.  Why shouldn't our medical system perform in the same way?