Roy?s favorite leftist for today writes:
When asked who is responsible for high health care costs, the most frequent answer is insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. Half the respondents believe that excessive profits are the biggest problem.
You would think then that addressing that problem would make sense for political leaders, unless for some reason they don?t want to offend the folks who run the industries making the excessive profits. Campaign finance reform anyone?
The problem is, USA Today in its story on the poll it financed with ABC News and the Kaiser Family Foundation, admitted that this isn?t the reason for high costs:
Few, however, correctly singled out the biggest drivers of spending, choosing instead culprits that get a lot of attention ? such as profits of medical companies or malpractice lawsuits ? but play a lesser role.
Amy Finkelstein of MIT estimates that half of the increase in health care costs has been due to the spread of health insurance, based on her study of Medicare. The USAT/ABC/KKF survey did not offer insurance as an option for respondents. It also distorted how Health Savings Accounts work in the one question on the topic, which got a 66% negative response.
Finally, a Harvard School of Public Health/Robert Woods Johnson Foundation poll found that, while people are more concerned about health care costs (for the family, not the country) than they are about quality or Medicare Part D, health care as a whole is a ?second-tier? issue for voters, ?ranking behind Iraq, the economy, and gasoline prices as a priority for government action.?
If politicians aren?t paying attention to health care, it is because health care won?t win them the election, even if they demagogue “excessive profits” that don’t exist.
