For all those proponents of nationalized health care ala the Sun King Obama, please read on:
3 Veterans Affairs patients test positive for HIV
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs says three patients exposed to contaminated medical equipment have now tested positive for HIV.
The VA said Friday initial tests show one patient each from its Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Augusta, Ga.; and Miami medical facilities has the virus that causes AIDS.
The cases include one previously reported at an unidentified facility.
The patients are among thousands getting tested because they were treated with endoscopic equipment that wasn’t properly sterilized and exposed them to the body fluids of others.
The VA also said there have been six positive tests for the hepatitis B virus and 19 positive tests for hepatitis C at the three locations.
The agency says there’s no way to prove patients contracted the illnesses at its facilities.
Politicians–and people pushing an agenda–keep crying “foul” about our health care system. “It’s ridiculously expensive,” they say, and they’re right. But the reason it’s so costly is not the doctors [not directly; see below]; it’s not just Big Pharma [though that's part of it].
The biggest reason health care is so insanely expensive is because the market is not allowed to function in this area. Between government regulation of health care [largely in the form of subsidies: Medicare/Medicaid, areas where there is also a pre-existing model of national health care], and third-party payers [insurance companies, for the uninitiated... FULL DISCLOSURE: I work for one, though not a consumer insurer], there is no market signal for price determination. I don’t feel the brunt of the cost of my visit to the doctor, only the copay or deductible payment. Because of this, I don’t try to bid down the price of care; my portion of the bill is minuscule, so what I see is a reasonable price for whatever care I get. The doctor then gets subsidized by the federal and/or state gummint, and the insurer also gets subsidized [Have you ever seen a state legislature that wasn't largely populated by insurance agents or lawyers who got rich off of them? Moral hazard, anyone?]
And everyone either has or needs insurance now–total care insurance, not just catastrophic care like it used to be–because of confiscatory marginal tax rates. Employers had to increase benefits because marginal tax rates would tend to consume any raises they paid out before their employees could spend them. This was necessary, in its turn, because of FED-sponsored inflation [prior to 1913 and the Federal Reserve Act, increases in the cost of living and standard of living occurred only due to actual advances in real income; for the past 40 years especially, the cost of living has increased as both the standard of living and real income have declined. Fiat currency is EVIL] But that’s another topic for another day.
Back to the original topic, if you think VA medical care is not entirely illustrative of central planning, you’re right. AMTRAK is another great example. Has it turned a profit in, like, ever?
