May 14th, 2009

Tony Rhodin, an editor for the Express-Times who also writes a blog for the newspaper’s website, recently opined on the healthcare industry’s sudden promise to save trillions of dollars for consumers over the next few years.

He writes:

When faced with the possibility of competition from a government health care plan, suddenly private health care providers decide they can find $2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years.

In other words, they’ve been stealing from us for all these years — because the Clinton plan failed to get through a gutless Congress and because they could.

It’s the best possible argument for government-run universal health care. It’s not what Obama has on the table, but with the health care folks making investment bankers look honest in comparison, why not consider it?

Basically this sector of the economy preyed on us because no one stopped them. They destroyed businesses that couldn’t afford the costs as prices ran away at a rate to which only those who set college tuition each year could relate.

I asked a hospital executive recently how hospitals come up with costs. They basically make them up, she explained. The insurance companies need a number from which to then decide what should be paid and what shouldn’t. The higher the initial number, the more it appears health care costs. But it doesn’t really cost that much, the executive said.

Read the rest of Tony’s blog entry.