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Economist calls for ancient principles in health-care reform

Socialized medicine is not the answer.

There are far more effective routes to take then simply turning to Karl Marx.

"LDS Church founder Joseph Smith said the community should take care of those in the community, whether they are believers or not."

Sounds like Joseph Smith was a social Democrat--a bad word here in Utah. We have gone a long ways in the wrong direction since Joseph Smith's time.

You've got to be kidding me- this article is about healthcare reform based on communistic examples found in the BOM and the Bible?? That sounds really cutting edge.

Here in the real world we as Americans have to decide between 2 schools of thought: Is healthcare a PRIVLEDGE or a RIGHT? We had this same debate over education in our early years and finally decided it was a right. And see how well our public schools run. If we decide that healthcare is also a right, brace yourselves for VA style medicine.

...socialized medicine, as proposed by democrats, is not the answer. There has to be a better way to take care of everyone.

I do agree that we should take care of everyone. However, to use scripture to promote a political agenda is as wrong as not taking care of those around us.

Not to pick on Joseph Smith but he attempted in Kirkland and in Missouri to live the united order. It was a misreable disaster, something that he stopped doing and got away from. So the comments by Joseph Smith that could lead one to easily believe in communialism were early on. One thing that the LDS (of which I am an active member) have a hard time doing is to admit mistakes. So you will not hear many quotes at all about NOT living the communal order. Just watch the examples though. The LDS are some of the most free market people and votes you will ever see.

There are several areas that must be addressed before improvement in our health care system will occur:

The recipient of the service has to have a financial stake in the transaction. When I buy a car I know how much it cost, I haggle for a better deal because I am spending (and saving) my own money.
When medical insurance became common that basic (and critical to a functional market) feedback was broken. The patient no longer cared (or even knew) how much the service cost. The provider (doctor) knew the customer didn�t care about cost and they went up. Economics 101. Until patients again have a stake in the cost of healthcare reform will falter.
A corollary problem introduced by medical insurance is yearly maximums. If a patient has not used the full annual benefit their plan allows they lose that benefit. This creates a perverse incentive to use healthcare even if it may not really be needed. Again breaking a basic market principal and driving costs up.

CONTINUED.....

Americans live a very unhealthy lifestyle that drives up healthcare cost. The majority of healthcare dollars are spent treating easily preventable problems. The current system demands little or no accountability from patients. We treat sickness as something that happens randomly and beyond the control of the patient when that is usually not so. The current plan does not penalize people who make bad choices that drive up their healthcare cost; worse, it does not reward those who make wise choices that keep their cost down. The irresponsible sick guy get all the benefit dollars, the healthy guy gets nothing.

The only way to get a handle on healthcare cost is to return the basic market dynamic where the recipient has a stake in the price being reasonable and where personal responsibility is rewarded.

Tragically politicians don�t even acknowledges these factors. They are just trying to find money to cover more people under the current fatally flawed system. Throw everyone into a single payer system funded by the government and everyone has incentives to use the plan to it�s max (after all, the GOVERNMENT is paying for it) Costs will skyrocket even more and literally bankrupt the nation.

CONTINUED.....

A couple of other points; a huge percentage of health care spending goes to keep terminal patients alive a few extra months. We have to get a better grip on our attitudes toward the end stage of life and develop a more reasonable, responsible and humane methodology that we have now.
Another problem; Americans have come to see healthcare as a right; but worse yet, as a right that someone else should pay for. We all expect the best quality care for ourselves and loved ones but don�t think WE should have any financial responsibility. �The insurance companies or government or my employer or the hospital should pick up the tab, not me!� We (usually) don�t expect someone else to pay for our food or housing or clothing but a huge percentage of Americans have come to see paying for healthcare as someone else�s responsibility.

Fixing healthcare will not be easy; realistically it may not be possible,the attitudes that make the current system bad are deeply ingrained.

However any system that does not respect the basic economic market principals discussed above will fail.

the end

this guy has the nerve to say we need to have plans to take care of the poor? Has he not heard of medicaid and SCHIP(which is actually a middle class entitlement)? Glad my tax dollars are funding programs that the high paid consultants aren't even aware of

Actually, the guy seems to fundamentally misunderstand Mormon doctrine if he thinks that it requires the government to be the entity taking control. Mormon doctrine is supposed to be about individual freedom, and every individual has a moral obligation to take care of those around them, and if they fail, they have something of which to repent. Joseph Smith assuredly believed that those in the community should take care of those that need care, but he likely also believed that it fell to individuals or the collective groups they formed, to take that care. I doubt he would have been a fan of having the government be responsible for the care, for two reasons. First, when government is responsible, individuals need not take any personal action to help others, because their tax dollars are doing the work, and they lose an important opportunity to directly serve. Second, the government, by using tax dollars that you cannot choose to abstain from paying, literally forces everyone to do good, and that violates the principles of agency that Joseph Smith believed in. I also like to think that if Joseph Smith saw how inefficient our government is, he would object on other grounds.