Old report I did...

Just been thinking about the health care hot-button issue right now. I did a paper a few years back about it. Some of the information is old, but none of it is outdated.

Part 1

The medical, free market model of the United States is unquestionably the world leader in the health care industry. Despite growing cries for reform and socialization as done in other nations, the US health care system is efficient, effective, and fair. More new treatments and cures for deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, malaria, etc. are developed in America more than any country due to our capitalistic system. The US is also number one in responsiveness to sick and injured patients. Socialist systems would inevitably bring long waiting lines in the hospital for emergencies and consequently a lower chance of survival. Although critics complain about how millions of people in the country are uninsured, they fail to examine the situations of these people. A variety of reasons exist on why they don’t have coverage, from thrift, to ignorance, to pure laziness. Even then, patients can’t be turned away from treatment, due to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. A socialized medical system will undoubtedly lead to poorer care, higher fatality rates, and a step closer to tyranny.

Hospitals charge exorbitant amounts to uninsured patients just so they are able to afford medicine and equipment. A large factor of these outrages prices are the government mandates we force on them.  Due to a number of regulations and mandated benefits, hospitals are forced to make patients pay much more than they would normally charge. Medical procedures with very little government involvement or coverage by insurance agencies, such as plastic surgery, is relatively affordable to most Americans, while much simpler operations such as near-fatal gunshot wounds typically charge far more. The government affects more than just the price of treatment; it also takes away the amount of time a doctor can take away with his patient. The amount of paperwork required for doctors is simply preposterous, turning them into mindless bureaucrats and pencil-pushing zombies.

The medical innovation of the US is the highest in the world. In most other countries, drug research is mainly sponsored by their respective government. In contrast, although the US supports drug research through the National Institute of Health, most come from private drug corporations. The vast majority of drugs for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and malaria come from American drug corporations. Indeed, 45% of the world’s pharmaceutical market belongs to the US. Of the fifty-six drugs available for AIDS patients in 2002, only five came from the National Institute of Health. The rest came from the drug corporations. When the Canadian government decided to provide universal health care and place price limits on drugs and hospitals, their drug research and output dropped by more than half. Part of the reason why hospitals have to charge so much for treatment is that drug research is a painstaking and highly unstable business. The average cost of developing a new drug is $802 million, and most of those drugs fail halfway through the actual development. Less than a third of drugs created make enough profit to make up for the cost of research and development.