When we are purchasing a product or a service, the marketplace offers us many choices. Competing wares may have different quality and cost levels. We experience this if we are renting a car, booking a hotel, hiring an attorney, selecting a restaurant or buying a musical instrument. All guitars, for example, are not equal.
When we decide to
purchase at a certain quality and price point, we must accept the realities of
this transaction. We should not purchase a Chevy, for example, and
expect a Cadillac experience.
I realize that price and
quality may not follow a linear path.
Just because something costs more doesn’t mean it’s better. There are wrinkles in the marketplace. Budget hotels, for example, often provide
guests with free breakfast free parking and free wifi while high end stodgy
hotels gouge guests with resort fees (please explain to me what this is), insane parking charges and crazy minibar prices on top of their exorbitant
room rates.
The task is to match an
item’s price and quality with a consumer’s need.
As a physician, I have
seen countless examples over the years of folks suffering from limitations in
insurance coverage with regard to drug coverage or high deductibles –
consequences of cheaper premiums. (I realize that the medical
insurance example is quite complex and very often people either have no choice
with regard to their insurance product or simply cannot afford better
coverage.)
There is a reason that inexpensive
health insurance is inexpensive. It
means your benefits will be limited, your choice of doctors may be restricted,
you may need a referral to see a specialist or that you will have to satisfy a
high deductible before your coverage kicks in.
These plans work well if you are not planning on getting sick. However, many events in life including
illness can arrive uninvited and unexpectedly
Health care coverage will be a different entity years
from now. What will the new coverage
model look like? Single payer? Government controlled? Free market based? I predict that health care delivery will
become a global phenomenon. Telemedicine already allows patients to consult
with physicians in other countries. Surgeons
will be able to operate on patients robotically thousands of miles away, and
sooner than we may think. Health
coverage may very well cross international boundaries. The complexity of this notion is mind
boggling and there will be resistance as always occurs when a reform creates
winners and losers. Disruption is very disruptive.
Would every individual have equal access to the same
level of health care if the industry is globalized? I doubt it considering how much inequity of
opportunity and outcome is built into our own society and the world. There will be tiers of service and the rich
will have access to better health care much as they now enjoy superior legal and
financial advice, better leisure activities and more comfortable housing.
I believe everyone has a right to health care but this
does not mean that everyone must receive the same level of care. Should a person who can afford better health
care be prevented from buying it?
@Tel U, thanks for your thoughtful comment. Personal privacy will be under threat, for sure. How do I know this? Because it already is. Not a week goes by that we are not told of some major breach of our data. Businesses are anxious that they may be the next target of ransomware. Who knows what future forms and capabilities nefarious actors will launch? Technological development will not be restricted to those who aim to make the world better.
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