Less Costly Medical Care

Everyone wants medical care at a reasonable cost. Yet we have acted to cause the costs of medical care to virtually explode, exceeding and leading the general rate of inflation. Let’s think about some of the factors that contribute to this cost increase.

One item is certainly technology. An example of this which I am aware of is the MRI because subsequent to the stroke, I’ve had three of them. This imaging technology is only about thirty years old, whereas the simpler x-ray is about 110 year old. I got interested in the technology because I wondered about the extreme noise in an MRI machine. Similar devices are the CT (or CAT) scanners and the PET scan which dates back to the late 1950s. All of these devices then, are relatively new, developed within the past 50 years or so. These devices provide the physicians with images of internal bodily functions that would otherwise require a more expensive and uncomfortable exploratory surgery. More patient comfort and mere accurate and quicker diagnosis are two medical goals that I think we’d all agree are worthwhile, so let’s not stand in the way of technological advancement and utilization.

Now an MRI machine can cost from $2 million to $3 million to buy and $800,000 per year to operate and maintain. So the radiological facility must recover the operating cost and amortization cost over the useful life of the machine or surely goes out of business. The patient or the patient’s insurance company will ultimately bear the cost. Since the radiological facility sees a profit potential in using the device it proceeds to launch the venture. If the government were the operating unit, the cost would still exist since these machines do not grow on trees. In this case you would have a bureaucrat in Washington deciding, not knowing the community or its needs or desires. The availability of an MRI exam in Brandon, FL is much better than in Canada. In Brandon, you can be in the MRI machine the same day or the next day the doctor requests, in Canada the delay can be several months because the power of the dollar is absent (or at least misplaced and therefore it is mute).

Because we live in such a litigious society, we pay more for medical care than we otherwise would. Doctors order more tests and practice what is called defensive medicine. An obstetrician/gynecologist will pay $800 thousand to $1 million a year for malpractice insurance. The patient or her insurance carrier pays this cost. Perhaps if our tort law system were like that of some countries where the loser pays, people would be less prone to sue the physician and his insurance premium cost would go down and thus the cost to you. Do the math: If the doctor works 200 days a year and delivers four babies each day, that’s $1,000 per baby delivered! In Sally Pipes book The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care, she discusses tort reform in the final chapter but does not mention adopting the “loser pays” scheme as in some other countries.