Health insurance premiums are rising at an annual double-digit percentage rate. The sticker shock of rising premiums provides the strongest force for change (Miller, 2002, 2). This rising cost of health insurance is influenced by the continuing rising cost of health care. The increasing share of medical bills by third-party payers (insurance companies and government) cause patients to over use medical resources since those resources appear to be free or almost free (Liebowitz, 1994, 1). Medical equipment, devices, advanced drugs, and sophisticated test like the full body scan continue to raise the cost of medical care. The more or better available is what the public demands.

Economics according to the Merriam- Webster dictionary is a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services (Merriam & Webster, 2002). Health care is a service, a good being consumed at a rate causing a devouring of America’s resources, and responsible for a large percent of the gross national product. According to Scott Liebowitz a professor of managerial economics in the Management School of the University of Texas, at

The excessive cost of our current medical system can be described in three categories, overuse of medical resources by patients, cost of administrative and paperwork, and finally the cost of malpractice suits. The final is driving physicians, good physicians out of the healthcare industry. Cutting medical expenditures must begin with cutting consumption, which does not call for not receiving necessary healthcare, only being willing to pay for what we receive, everyone wants Cadillac care but few are willing to pay even for Fords rates.

One of the most interesting statements in the article written by Liebowitz was the study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine by Brooke and others concluding that free health care did not improve the health of those receiving that care. Along with the analogy that if the government told citizens it would pay up to eighty percent of the cost of each automobile, most citizens would march out and purchase very expensive cars. The manufactures, sensing profits, would begin to offer far more standard equipment and new types of equipment, luxury car would become commonplace. It is hard to believe that healthcare can be compared to profit making auto dealers but it surely makes sense. Putting the patient in power, back in control of the medical purchasing decisi

Some topics in this essay:
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