How To Reduce Healthcare Costs: Increase Supply Of Healthcare

Health Care

Last week I posted on the fact that the government released data describing the prices hospitals charged the government for services.  Armed with this knowledge, perhaps we can begin to see some comparison shopping resulting in lower prices.

I am glad to see the administration embracing some free and open market concepts.

And we have another example, this time in California:

As states gear up for the Affordable Care Act, they’re trying to figure out if there will be enough providers of health care to meet demand from the newly insured.

California is one of 15 states expected to consider legislation this year that would give advanced practice nurses more authority to care for patients without a doctor’s supervision.

If you want to bring prices down, you need to reduce demand, something that Obamacare does NOT do, or you need to increase supply, something governments have been unwilling to do.

As an example, I was discussing this with my mother-in-law some 2 years ago.  I mentioned that we need to increase the amount of services that can be handled by lower educated/certified professionals, thus increasing the number of people who can perform that service.

“For example” I said, “if I were to break my finger today, there is no need for a medical doctor to set that finger; a nurse could do it just fine.”

“Not me!  Why would I want to see a nurse when I can see an orthopedic specialist today?”

Exactly.

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