When you hear a hear a politician, and economist or corporate executive talk about the wonder of free market in health care it is not mentioned that the system doesn’t tolerate any other consumer product. In the supermarket you know exactly what every customer pays for each item because it is marked. But in health care this information is impossible to come by. Health care providers can charge a customer five times as much as another. In American health care a corporate executives pay the least, while working and non-working people has the system determining what they pay. The self- employed are unable to secure insurance while the working yet poor people make too much money to qualify for government paid Medicaid and are charged top dollar for insurance. Over the last few decades American health care has radically changed. A system that was largely not for profit has become a field where the profit motive and market forces affect every decision. Publicly held corporations answerable to stockholders decide which doctor you may see, how much medication you can take, weather you can be evaluated by a specialist, weather you qualify for a test, how long you stay in a hospital, how many therapy sessions you may attend. Health care has become a lottery and if you work for a large company that provides generous benefits, you win but if you work for a small company or as an independent contractor you lose. So no matter how much of an important job you have that may be vital to society it all means nothing once you get sick and can’t afford the health care you need.
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