Thursday, October 01, 2009

Waste in health care

In health care, doctors and hospitals make more profit by being less efficient, according to this report.
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2 comments:

Sim said...

The simple answer would be to deregulate, as mentioned in the report, and allow the free market to work. Healthcare costs have been rising every year due to heavy government subsidies and grants. In America, irresponsible usage of Medicare exacerbates the problem.

The interesting twist is that while general healthcare costs have gone up, non-subsidised and uninsurable "healthcare" costs have actually gone down. For example, Lasik operation costs have been decreasing as time goes by.

I like the Swiss healthcare system you brought up in another post. Perfect example of market regulation at work. At the end of the day, private insurers want to make a profit and they are actually empowered by the system to hunt down doctors abusing the system. If a similar practice can be implemented in Singapore, it will be greatly beneficial. Totally privatise MediShield and empower the insurers to check on claims.

October 01, 2009 6:12 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...

The Swiss government regulate drug prices, lab tests and medical devices. They also require insurers to take every patient, regardless of health condition (i.e. no underwriting). The basic insurance is also runned on non-profit.

It is not a free market for insurance, that allows the private insurers to make a lot of profit (like in America).

October 01, 2009 6:46 PM

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