Published March 18, 2009 07:27 pm - I don’t know that much about Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, but he doesn’t sound like he lives in the real world. At least when it comes to health care.
We don’t need health-care competition ROBERT LEBZELTER column for March 22, 2009
I don’t know that much about Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, but he doesn’t sound like he lives in the real world.
At least when it comes to health care.
President Barack Obama earlier this month hosted a health reform session in which he said all opinions on how to solve the health-care crisis would be welcome.
The president has proposed a government-run health program.
That’s where he and Grassley part company. Grassley is concerned it will reduce competition.
Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., chimed in, “That’s clearly going to be a big area of contention.”
Since when should competition have anything to do with health care? OK, you can shop for prescription drugs at the cheapest drug store.
But in practical terms, competition doesn’t exist.
Say you suddenly feel pain in your chest. You collapse. You are rushed not to the hospital affording the best rates. You go to the hospital that’s the closest.
And while you are lying there, connected to all sorts of machines, you don’t ask how much it is costing. You are worried for your life.
It is doubtful you will pick up your cell phone and call other area hospitals, asking what their prices are for hooking you up to similar machines.
Chances are, the doctors and nurses who care for you have no clue what the cost is anyway.
Consider if the emergency room doctor says you need an EKG or MRI or some other part of the alphabet, would you ask how much it would cost? Would you call other hospitals?
Not likely and again, would you get a straight answer?
When you need to see a doctor, do you go searching for the cheapest one, or do you go to the doctor you have seen for the past several years?
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