Reducing the Growth of Healthcare Costs

Two of the leading factors leading to the current economic decline of the United States are the lack of access to adequate healthcare by a large number of Americans and the soaring costs of healthcare which has been for years greater than the general rate of inflation. Congress is currently poised to take a first step in addressing the access issue, but there need to be some steps taken to bring the rising costs of medical care under control.

The following are some steps that could be taken to help reduce costs in the long term and help to improve the quality of care.

1. Increase the number of medical schools throughout the country. This would increase the number of doctors and should help to lower costs by supply and demand. It would have the additional benefit of reducing an individual doctor's caseload and allowing a doctor to spend more time with each patient thereby improving the overall quality of care.

2. Subsidize the costs of a medical education. Most medical students incur extremely large debts in the form of student loans which forces them into high-priced specialties in order to pay off the debt. This could be part of a general fix of the student loan problem which affects students in all areas of the higher educational system.

3. Reforming malpractice insurance so that premiums are not excessive (some specialists have left their practices because of these costs). This could be done with a combination of tort reform and insurance reform.

4. Subsidize technology (medical imaging, specialized surgical tools etc.) by funding research and development as well as deployment.

The high cost of medical care is complex and will not have a single solution, but it's something we need to start thinking about.