When my oldest son, Andy, first learned of the concept of infinity, he said to me, “Dad, I wish I had infinite money!” I tried to explain to him that he would be no better off because prices would be bid up to the point that every good and service would become infinitely expensive. The Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) that was passed into law on March 23, 2010, is the closest that the human race has ever come to the concept of infinite money. By 2014, Obamacare entirely removes both annual and lifetime monetary limits on benefits provided by health insurance. This will shift the demand curve to the right to the point where at every possible price, a greater quantity is demanded. With limits placed on the monetary amounts that healthcare providers can receive, the supply c...urve will not shift to the right and may even shift to the left because of additional costs (such as additional taxes on medical device manufacturers, who have already begun to layoff employees). With no corresponding increase in supply, the price of healthcare should skyrocket until the quantity demanded of healthcare meets the quantity supplied. But, as stated in the previous paragraph, health care costs will not be allowed to rise by rule. Without a shift to the right in the supply curve, the quantity demanded of healthcare will exceed the quantity supplied of healthcare and there will be shortages. The Association of American Medical colleges project that the shortage of doctors will reach 124,000 by 2025. If current trends in the physician workforce continue, the shortage could reach 159,300. With the passage of universal health care coverage, the increase in demand for physicians could increase the projected shortfall by another 31,000. How this shortage in healthcare will be addressed will, unfortunately, be left in the hands of our politicians who seem to believe that the laws of economics can somehow be sidestepped or ignored or just do not apply when the “right” of healthcare is involved. Without returning to a market-oriented approach to rising healthcare costs, the political solution would result in rationing of healthcare. Who would decide and how would it be decided what healthcare benefits would be provided to whom? Would the elderly and terminally ill be left to die? Would those of us most likely to vote our current politicians for re-election be the ones who are treated?
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 15:21:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015