archives

Here are two of Dr. Joseph Jarvis's six suggestions for bringing about true health-care reform in Utah (Salt Lake Tribune):

Perverse incentives: From the Wall Street Journal on April 5: "Research at Dartmouth Medical School suggests that if everyone in America went to the Mayo Clinic, our annual health-care bill would be 25 percent lower (more than $500 billion) and the average quality of care would improve. ... Of course, not everyone can get treatment at Mayo. ... But why [is] this example of efficient, high-quality care not being replicated all across the country? The answer is that high-quality, low-cost care is not financially rewarding. Indeed, the opposite is true. Hospitals and doctors can make more money providing inefficient, mediocre care."

Market-based health policy: If we are to eliminate the perverse incentives that lead to inefficient, mediocre care, we have to give up the cherished notion that health care is a commodity efficiently distributed by market forces. We do not principally fund health care through the private sector — 60 percent of revenues paying for health services come from taxpayers, making our citizens more taxed for health care than any people in the world. Beyond that, health care is not subject to market forces, such as a lowered price increasing demand. No one ever had an appendectomy because the price was right. The occurrence of illness and injury primarily determine demand for health services.