The Trouble with Health Care

Blogging at Townhall, John Stossel writes he is in the highest rated hospital in New York for treatment of early stage lung cancer which he assures us they "caught early." He writes about his experience there being far from customer-oriented and explains why.

Customer service is sclerotic because hospitals are largely socialist bureaucracies. Instead of answering to consumers, which forces businesses to be nimble, hospitals report to government, lawyers and insurance companies.

Whenever there's a mistake, politicians impose new rules: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act paperwork, patient rights regulations, new layers of bureaucracy...

Adding to that is a fear of lawsuits. Nervous hospital lawyers pretend mistakes can be prevented with paper and procedure. Stressed hospital workers ignore common sense and follow rigid rules.

I'm as happy as the next guy to have government or my insurance company pay, but the result is that there's practically no free market. Markets work when buyer and seller deal directly with each other. That doesn't happen in hospitals.

Leftists say the solution to such problems is government health care. But did they not notice what happened at Veterans Affairs? Bureaucrats let veterans die, waiting for care. When the scandal was exposed, they didn't stop. USA Today reports that the abuse continues. Sometimes the VA's suicide hotline goes to voicemail.

John, perhaps your experience is atypical. Maybe you're having a lousy experience because you are hospitalized in a huge city known for chip-on-the-shoulder nastiness and aggression. Things are better, people are nicer in fly-over country hospitals away from big cities.