Just Got Word

Just in case the emerging Republican ideology of massive deregulation (ne: libertarianism) has any impact on the impending political elections, the Democrats are on board with the recent rolling back of numerous hospital operations rules that are considered inefficient and obsolete.  In fact, not only does this demonstrate that the Democrats can play the "government as a friend of business" hand, it could very well pave the way for acceptance of Obamacare. For details on the changes, see: "US Moves To Cut Back Regulations on Hospitals" in the October 19, 2011 edition of the The New York Times.  As the article points out: "Many of the new proposals deal with Medicare and Medicaid rules that have not been altered in decades.  In general, the proposals do not affect the large number of rules issued under the new health care law, which set detailed standards for coverage offered by insurance companies and employers." How does this housekeeping give credibi...

Healthy competition leads to endless improvements. Product quality and customer service improve. Innovation propels advances in the state and types of care. Quality adjusted prices fall, the market expands and more customer needs are fulfilled. The options expand as health care organizations work to distinguish their products or services from others. Excellent companies prosper while firms with low quality, poor service, or high costs decline or go out of business unless they make fundamental changes to the way they operate. This is how value-based competition works in virtually every field: retailing, airlines, financial services, aerospace and computer services.   However,   it is very different from what we see today in health care.   There are a number of reasons for this.   First of all, many practitioners consider the whole idea of competition to be suspect.   Physicians are taught that competition is wasteful, that it promote...