Private systems are focused on making profits for a few
well-positioned people. Public systems, when sufficiently supported by
taxes, work for everyone in a generally equitable manner.
The following are six specific reasons why privatization simply doesn't work.
The Profit Motive Moves Most of the Money to the Top
The federal Medicare Administrator made $170,000 in 2010. The president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas made over ten times as much in 2012. Stephen J. Hemsley, the CEO of United Health Group, made almost 300 timesas much in one year, $48 million, most of it from company stock.
In part because of such inequities in compensation, our
private health care system is the most expensive system in the developed
world. The price of common surgeries is anywhere from three to ten times higher in the U.S. than in Great Britain, Canada, France, or Germany. Two of the documented examples: an $8,000 special stress test for which Medicare would have paid $554; and a $60,000 gall bladder operation, for which a private insurance company was willing to pay $2,000.
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