Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

What John Stossel gets right, and wrong, about health care

Kevin Wacasey, MD
Policy
May 12, 2016
Share
Tweet
Share

I was saddened to hear that one of my favorite libertarians, the wonderful journalist John Stossel, has taken ill. True to form, however, he’s taking it in stride (he nonchalantly quipped, “seems I have lung cancer”), and I want to take this opportunity to wish him very well indeed. I enjoy his reporting and writing, and have learned a great deal from Mr. Stossel over the years.

But that doesn’t mean he’s always right.

In a great piece about his recent diagnosis and workup at one of America’s “premier” hospitals, Stossel goes to great lengths to praise the quality of medical care he’s received throughout his ordeal. He also uses the article to ruthlessly bash the customer service, or rather lack thereof, that he has experienced during the experience.

In his usual style, Stossel makes point after cutting point by calling out the illogical elements that don’t make sense anywhere but health care. About how he has to fill out mounds of paperwork but then isn’t filled in with the results of his tests. About how he is kept awake all night by emergency alarms that aren’t emergent after all. About how a fear of being sued means rigid rules get followed instead of common sense.

Well said, John. As usual. Of course, he totally gets it right, and for all the right reasons: the American health care system may be the best in the world, but at the same time, it can deliver customer service that would make patients rather stand in a Soviet-era toilet paper line. In the cold. Naked.

So what then could this otherwise spot-on, hard hitting truthsayer possibly be wrong about?

To put it simply, the patient’s role as a consumer in the health care marketplace.

At the end of his article, Stossel makes his ultimate point by stating the obvious: that markets only work “when buyer and seller deal directly with each other.” He then goes on to say that, aside from cosmetic and vision correction procedures not covered by health insurance, in health care “there’s practically no free market … patients will have a better experience only when more of us spend our money for care.”

Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you Mr. Stossel, but guess what? In a world where the average health insurance deductible — never mind the out of pocket maximum — is well into the four-figure range, the majority of those who have private health insurance are spending their money, for their own care.

See, the golden age of health insurance — when patients paid their premiums and their policy “took care every ting” a lá Tony Soprano — is dead and gone. It’s not about a $20 copay anymore.

But in what is a most common misconception, the idea of comprehensive health insurance coverage still lingers, and Stossel isn’t the only famous figure to miss this very important point, or its even more important implications.

In fact, no one that I’ve ever heard in the media gets it right. Even that bastion of right wing fiscal conservatism Glenn Beck misspoke last year, when he told me that we’ve never had a free market health care system in the U.S. But I have to hand it to him, because Glenn did have the chutzpah to change his mind when I pointed out that we do, already, have a free market for health care in this country.

Those in the media aren’t the only ones who are blind to the facts, either. Even doctors, our supposed ultimate authorities in Western medicine, get it dead wrong when they propose solutions to the status quo.

ADVERTISEMENT

Dr. Thomas Paine wrote an article last year that explores why doctors are burning out. An emergency physician like me, Dr. Paine nailed it when he said that physicians lost control by handing over their administrative and financial duties to businessmen over the past forty years.

But he too got it wrong when he threw his hands up and wrote that the idea of “patients paying out-of-pocket … is officially dead in America.”

That just isn’t true; and in fact, quite the opposite exists. The average American worker now has to pay almost $1,500 out of pocket before health insurance kicks in. Which means that the average American worker is now a health care consumer. The problem is that the patients — just like the pundits — don’t understand this.

Or I should say they aren’t aware of it, until they have to pay.

But just as no one would ever sit down to a meal at a restaurant where the menu had no prices listed, neither should American patients shop for health care without a healthy knowledge of what they will be charged. After they hand over their co-pay.

It’s not just up to patients, though. Physicians and other health care providers need to do their part too, before any real change occurs. They need to stop billing health insurance for every routine office visit, lab, or x-ray, which most high deductible policies don’t “cover” anyway. Instead, offer a menu of services at reasonable prices and let the free market forces of competition begin!

Only then will prices plummet, and only then will customer service increase, Mr. Stossel.

And best of all, the fix to our Great American Health Care Crisis doesn’t require any new legislation, regulation, or administration. It only requires a change in attitude – and when patients and providers start applying our sense of good old fashioned, American consumerism toward the free market conditions that already exist in health care, we can all breathe easier.

Remember, it’s not the costs of health care that are outrageous; it’s the charges.

Kevin Wacasey is an emergency physician who blogs at Healthcarenomics.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

Talk to patients in a language they can understand

May 11, 2016 Kevin 1
…
Next

The story of an exhausted doctor daughter

May 12, 2016 Kevin 3
…

Tagged as: Emergency Medicine, Hospital-Based Medicine

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Talk to patients in a language they can understand
Next Post >
The story of an exhausted doctor daughter

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

  • How social media can help or hurt your health care career

    Health eCareers
  • Turn physicians into powerful health care influencers

    Kevin Pho, MD
  • Why health care replaced physician care

    Michael Weiss, MD
  • How I was wrong about health care

    Robert Yoho, MD
  • Health care is not a service commodity

    Peter Spence, MD, MBA
  • Why the health care industry must prioritize health equity

    George T. Mathew, MD, MBA

More in Policy

  • How locum tenens work helps physicians and APPs reclaim control

    Brian Sutter
  • Why Medicaid cuts should alarm every doctor

    Ilan Shapiro, MD
  • Why physician voices matter in the fight against anti-LGBTQ+ laws

    BJ Ferguson
  • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

    Carlin Lockwood
  • What Adam Smith would say about America’s for-profit health care

    M. Bennet Broner, PhD
  • The lab behind the lens: Equity begins with diagnosis

    Michael Misialek, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Why male fertility needs to be part of every health conversation

      Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian | Conditions
    • How home-based AI can reduce health inequities in underserved communities [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Inside human trafficking: a guide to recognizing and preventing it [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Graduating from medical school without family: a story of strength and survival

      Anonymous | Education
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why does rifaximin cost 95 percent more in the U.S. than in Asia?

      Jai Kumar, MD, Brian Nohomovich, DO, PhD and Leonid Shamban, DO | Meds
  • Recent Posts

    • How home-based AI can reduce health inequities in underserved communities [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Adriana Smith’s story: a medical tragedy under heartbeat laws

      Nicole M. King, MD | Physician
    • What if medicine had an exit interview?

      Lynn McComas, DNP, ANP-C | Conditions
    • Why U.S. health care pricing is so confusing—and how to fix it

      Ashish Mandavia, MD | Physician
    • From survival to sovereignty: What 35 years in the ER taught me about identity, mortality, and redemption

      Kenneth Ro, MD | Physician
    • When doctors forget how to examine: the danger of lost clinical skills

      Mike Stillman, MD | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 16 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Why male fertility needs to be part of every health conversation

      Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian | Conditions
    • How home-based AI can reduce health inequities in underserved communities [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Inside human trafficking: a guide to recognizing and preventing it [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Graduating from medical school without family: a story of strength and survival

      Anonymous | Education
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why does rifaximin cost 95 percent more in the U.S. than in Asia?

      Jai Kumar, MD, Brian Nohomovich, DO, PhD and Leonid Shamban, DO | Meds
  • Recent Posts

    • How home-based AI can reduce health inequities in underserved communities [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Adriana Smith’s story: a medical tragedy under heartbeat laws

      Nicole M. King, MD | Physician
    • What if medicine had an exit interview?

      Lynn McComas, DNP, ANP-C | Conditions
    • Why U.S. health care pricing is so confusing—and how to fix it

      Ashish Mandavia, MD | Physician
    • From survival to sovereignty: What 35 years in the ER taught me about identity, mortality, and redemption

      Kenneth Ro, MD | Physician
    • When doctors forget how to examine: the danger of lost clinical skills

      Mike Stillman, MD | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

What John Stossel gets right, and wrong, about health care
16 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...