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Health Care: Government Regulations Can Kill You

A popular talking point among advocates of socialized medicine is that rising health care costs can only be brought under control if the government takes over the system. If that seems counter-intuitive, it is not an illusion. I just discovered this 2004 study, by Christopher Conover, which shows that government regulation is one of the primary CAUSES of health care inflation:

The total cost of health services regulation exceeds $339.2 billion. This figure takes into account regulation of health facilities, health professionals, health insurance, drugs and medical devices, and the medical tort system, including the costs of defensive medicine.

But that’s not the worst of it. Conover also presents a good case that this heavy regulatory burden is actually responsible for patient deaths:

4,000 more Americans die every year from costs associated with health services regulation (22,000) than from lack of health insurance (18,000).

Obviously, the regulatory burden imposed by Washington will increase dramatically if the government is given full control of our health care system. Thus, socialized medicine—or “single-payer health care” as its advocates would have it—would give us a higher level of health care inflation combined with a higher than necessary rate of patient mortality.

No thanks.

Comments 2

  1. Lee Stranahan wrote:

    Sorry, I was a libertarian too long not to recognize this tactic - what you are saying here is TOTAL BS…

    First off, the costs of regulation are something that the health care industry LIKES. They want regulation - it helps doctors keep midwives illegal and helps the drug companies stop competition.

    Second, by tossing ‘defensive medicine’ in there as example of regulation is a joke. Are you saying people shouldn’t be allowed to sure doctors who are negligent?

    These figure for deaths were pulled out of someone’s butt. It’s a good example of lying with statistics.

    Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 3:04 pm
  2. Catron wrote:

    As someone who works in the health care industry, I can promise you that we definitely don’t like government regulation or the costs that come with it. What we in the industry would like is to provide quality care for a reasonable (market-determined) price. Unfortunately, excess government regulation gets in the way.

    As to defensive medicine, no one wants to forbid people from suing TRULY negligent docs. But the large number of frivolous suits does cause physicians to order too many tests so that they won’t be accused of not being properly dilligent. This creates over-utilization (excess demand) which is a major cause of rising health care costs.

    Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 3:50 pm

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