Here are a few reasons why our health care system has become broken (hint: its the governments fault):
1. HMO Act of 1973 - This is the beginning of employer-provided health care benefits. Was meant to lower the cost of health care but did the opposite. You have no choice in coverage, you only have a plan when you are employed & you are only covered under certain doctors and in certain states or areas.
2. ERISA Act of 1974- This stated that employers can buy tax-deductible health care plans but a person on their own cannot buy a tax-deductible plan.
3. FDA- Takes about 15 years to take a drug from the chalkboard to the medicine cabinet. On average, it costs nearly a billion dollars for 1 drug to go through this process. And if any change is made, you start all over. Many drugs are lost in the R&D process so you can imagine how much money is spent by pharmaceutical companies. The FDA is suppose to protect us from harmful/useless drugs, but they dont. Drugs like Fen-phen, Vioxx, Vytorin, Zetia, Thalidomide, etc all make it past the FDAs trials but why? The FDA doesnt actually test the drugs, they "oversee" the pharmaceutical company & the company themselves conduct the trials. Also they will not allow the re-importation of FDA approved drugs. Thats right, drugs they approved of, that left the country, are not allowed back in.
4. the American Medical Association, AMA- Physicians have a strong lobby in congress and use that power to limit the number of physicians and other non-physician health care professionals. By keeping the physician supply low, medical costs & doctor salaries are inflated.
5.HSA/MSAs- Health Savings Accounts are a good thing. The problem is you are not allowed to have one. The only people eligible for HSAs are those with high-deductible insurance policies. All people should be eligible for HSAs. Its basically an IRA for health expenses. The money is not taxed and can only be used on medical expenses. If everyone had these, we'd be able to build up a "rainy day" fund and we would be able to afford any unforeseen medical expenses they we may come across.
I could go on all day but those are 5 big ones. The FDA itself I could go on all day about. As a member of the health care field, I have done some of my own research behind our health care woes. Its the governments fault....big surprise huh?