“Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act” doesn’t guarantee health care
December 22nd, 2008 | by Brian Schwartz |State Representative John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, says that under his single-payer health care plan, the “Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act,” “people can choose their own doctor and get high-quality care.” Here he overlooks a critical distinction: health insurance or prepaid health care is not the same as health care. In states and countries that have some form of “universal coverage” people do not get the care they need.
For example, the Commonwealth Fund ranks Hawaii first in health care because of the high percentage of residents with insurance or prepaid care. But the Hawaii Medical Association president Linda Rasmussen says:
People have got insurance — great. If we don’t have doctors available to see them, what good does insurance do you? …[The ability to find a doctor] is dangerously limited due to Hawaii’s lack of medical tort reform and low insurance reimbursements. In fact, access to health care in Hawaii is in a state of crisis. … If I have a patient who needs a total joint (replacement) and has an abnormal EKG (electrocardiogram) and needs to see a cardiologist, it’s almost three months to get an appointment before he gets cleared. … If a person calls when they’re 50 for a colonoscopy, they’re almost 51 before they get in.
In Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reports:
The wait to see primary care doctors in Massachusetts has grown to as long as 100 days, while the number of practices accepting new patients has dipped in the past four years, with care the scarcest in some rural areas.
Now, as the state’s health insurance mandate threatens to make a chronic doctor shortage worse…
In Canada, a recent Sarnia Observer headline reads: “Doctor Shortage Still A Looming Problem In Canada.” The Calgary Herald reports that the “ongoing doctor shortage” is ”still one of the biggest issues facing the province’s strapped healthcare system.”
Instead of more government interference, politicians should pursue free-market reforms that repeal damaging regulations. For example, the tax code that favors employer-sponsored insurance and laws the forbid people from buying affordable insurance from across state lines. For details, see here and here.
tags: Canada health, CO Guaranteed Healthcare Act, Colorado HB 09-1273, Colorado HB 1273, Hawaii, John Kefalas, Massachusetts health, physicians, single payer
