by Wm. Maxwell Dominion, PhD

Created on: October 28, 2009   Last Updated: December 23, 2009

The Pursuit of Life, Liberty, Happiness, and Affordable Quality Health-care

The pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness begins and ends with our health and affordable quality health-care.  In the language of Economics 101—the needs for health-care services are inelastic (meaning the needs for health-care services remain unchanged irrespective of price changes for services).  On the other hand, demand for health-care services is elastic—in that, demand decreases when prices are increased.  This is a stripped down version of how 46 million uninsured and 151 million under-insured Americans were generated.

Our health-care and financial markets have become socialistic cartels by and for rich and powerful Americans.  They force poor and middle-class Americans to choose between food, housing, transportation, and health-care.  A neighbor of mine who lived across the street from me lost her home because she could not pay her health-care bills and mortgage too.  As an American—this was very disheartening to witness.

Greed is not good, but free market competition is very good for the democracy of fair pricing and distribution of health-care service resources.  Considering our very costly stagnant monopoly public education system and the fact that it provides substandard education—public government education has been, and is being helped by the introduction of real competition in the form of Charter and Private Schools.  In the health-care industry’s case, which is heavy weighted with private sector unregulated monopolistically constrained markets, and is self-serving with regard to profiteering; providing quality health-care is not one of their consistent priorities.

At the local level, health-care reformists are up against cartels of hospitals, alliances of doctors, and medical corporations.  These cartels have been impacted very little by the recession.  In Dayton, Ohio, two major hospital corporations have built 3 grand wings on 3 hospital campuses (Miami Valley Hospital, Good-Samaritan Hospital, and Sycamore Medical Center).  One of them built a whole new hospital campus.  To fund and recover their costs, they just raise their overhead costs and prices charged for medical services consumed by patients.

They have a monopoly on an inelastic health-care need driven consumer base.  Their captive consumer base is assured by population growth, baby boomers, and by the commercial

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