Health Care, Overcharging and the Continued Scourge of Privatization
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Three issues around private health that may be of interest:
- The UK gov competition commission has released a report outlining that there is overcharging going on in the private health system because of monopolies forming there. This is the same as the stories a few years ago in the US.
- Evidence released this week that there has been uneven take-up of health service in the UK where public NHS services have been cut. This could act as a caution to the idea that the private sector will respond to cover needed hospital services if the two tier system continues to develop here in Canada.
- Excessive charging by doctors for things like saline solution to the uninsured in the US has been revealed by the NYT. This along with the continued corruption probes into Serco and G4S put to shame the argument that private systems are cheaper or more efficient.
Basically, over the previous three weeks the anti-privatization activists have been proved correct yet again. There is no guarantee of expanded private sector when public services are cut, private monopolies develop in health care and cause increased costs, and the private sector health system cheats the poor and the taxpayer.