Myth - Government Run Healthcare Is An Answer to Healthcare Inflation

Obamacare’s Costly Flaw - Dr. David Gratzer - National Review Online: "Health care might be cheaper in socialized systems (in part, because of rationed care), but, even with their long waiting lists, costs are rising just as quickly there as here...

And how did the United States do with its lack of Obama-inspired Canada-Irish-German-style bureaucratic controls? Health inflation here was 3.4 percent last year, just over double the basic inflation rate. Tellingly, the worst cost increases were experienced by . . . government. Medicare costs were up 8.6 percent, and Medicaid, up 9.9 percent."

Government-run systems globally are doing barely better than the United States in controlling healthcare costs, even with government rationing. In the United States, the portion of our health care economy that seems least able to control inflation is the government, where costs are rising at a nearly 10% rate. Does this suggest to a rational (i.e. non-Leftist) mind that we should shift control for MORE of our healthcare system to the government? And remember, Medicare and Medicaid price controls are already effectively shifting a considerable amount of the burden for those programs onto private insurers. If not for that fact, the inflation numbers for government-run healthcare would look even worse.