Should the U.S. Have Universal Healthcare?

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By Dr. Merrill Matthews, resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation.

I can’t think of how many times I’ve heard “if we can only get the profits out of health care, we will improve quality and lower costs.”   In fact, there are a lot of nonprofit players in the U.S. health care system.   Many of the hospitals were founded by religious organizations and operate as nonprofits.   Indeed, many health insurers were created as nonprofits (even though that’s changing).   But I have never seen any study that demonstrates that the nonprofits do a better job of providing higher-quality care or coverage for less money.   Indeed, The Wall Street Journal ran an article not long ago pointing out that some of the nonprofit hospitals charge significantly higher prices than for-profits.

Moreover, even in the single-payer countries, doctors’ practices are often for-profit businesses, and those doctors and hospitals buy prescription drugs and medical equipment from for-profit businesses. Thus, there are a lot of profits still being made in the single-payer systems, and there are a lot of nonprofits in the U.S. system.

The only real question to ask in health care is the same question consumers (or in this case, patients) should ask in any other sector of the economy: Can I get high-quality care for a reasonable price?   In other words, do patients get value for their health care dollars?

The answer is a qualified yes.   U.S. patients get very high-quality care, but it is more expensive than it should be because of our third-party payment system.   There is a way to fix that problem, but the single-payer countries, which are themselves completely mired in a third-party payment system, have little or nothing to teach us about that issue.