Regulations
make insurance unaffordable
Health care regulations cost Americans $169,000,000,000 per year and make health insurance unaffordable for over 7,000,000 citizens, argues an assistant research professor at Duke University, Raleigh, N.C. The costs of health care regulations outweigh the benefits by two-to-one and induce more deaths each year than the Institute of Medicine estimates are caused by a lack of health insurance.In "Health Care Regulation: A $169 Billion Hidden Tax," Christopher J.
Conover charges that health services regulations cost the
average household an estimated $1,546 and roughly one out
of six of the average daily uninsured owe their plight to
excess regulatory costs. "Americans would be better
off taking their chances on less regulation and instead
saving 22,000 lives for certain by keeping [the $169,000,000,000]
in the hands of consumers, thereby enabling them to purchase
safer products--cars, homes, etc.--or to make other investments
to improve their health.
"He suggests that the most promising target for regulatory
cost savings is medical liability reform, maintaining that
system imposes costs of $113,700,000,000 but provides benefits
amounting to just $33,000,000,-000. Conover adds that other
ways to reduce excess costs would be to deregulate the Food
and Drug Administration, health insurance (e.g., continuation-of-coverage
impositions and mandated health benefits), and health facilities
(e.g., accreditation and licensure).
