I’ve written about the inappropriateness of a pure “free market, for profit” health care system in excruciating, abstract terms here and here. Today I present a concrete, personal example.
Last week I visited the dermatologist to have a cyst on my upper arm examined. At least, I think it was a cyst because this is what my primary care physician told me he thought it was. The dermatologist examined the cyst and then presented me with the following information:
— he believed it was a cyst
— there were two courses of treatment available to me: drain it or surgically remove it
He then explained that if he drained it, there was a 50% chance it would re-fill with fluid. He also stated that the surgery was minor.
Based on his statements, I inferred that he thought I ought to have the surgery. Usually when people present two options and they point out that one of them presents more risk than you might think and the other presents less, they are trying to persuade you.
I asked him about a third option — the option I’d been using for the past few years: do nothing. He said this was certainly an option but that, since “cyst” had grown over this time, this was probably not a good idea. He also pointed out that with the procedure I would get a biopsy to be sure it was nothing worse than a cyst.
I was pretty sure he wanted me to do the surgery, but I don’t like to operate off of insinuations and hints when I can help it, so I asked him directly “What do you recommend.” He said he thought the surgery was the best option because it will “take care of it.” His reasoning made sense and so I scheduled an appointment. I had the surgery on Tuesday and it was, as he had suggested, convenient and minimally intrusive.
That is the story so far. I am, of course, curious to see the results of the biopsy. Hopefully the diagnosis of “cyst” is correct.
I tell this story because it is a simple, concrete example of what I have called the “demand curve problem” in health care. First of all, the demand curve plots “price” on its vertical axis. But at no time did the cost of the procedure enter the discussion. I have no idea how much the surgery costs. In fact, during the operation, we discussed the health care situation and proposals. I pointed out that the current system is lousy because after the fact, patients have to fight with insurance companies to pay for their care. He agreed and admitted that, though it was unlikely in this case, there was always the chance that the insurance company would resist paying for this procedure. In other words, I may have been involved in an expensive procedure that I would have to pay for, not knowing its cost in advance.
But there is a reason why my doctor did not tell me the cost. His job is to recommend treatment to make me healthy, not to sell me a service. In his mind and in mine, this is not a consumer decision. In fact, it was hardly my decision, in a meaningful sense, at all. Yes, technically, I gave approval for the surgery, but the options I was presented with already pre-figured the decision. My choice was to:
a) Follow the advice of my doctor, which entailed removing a source of anxiety and, in the doctor’s judgment, improving my long term health for the cost of a $30 copay and a 1/2 visit to his office
or
b) Ignore my doctor’s advice based on personal prejudices or gut instincts, such as a fear of surgery or generic distrust of science.
In other words, I did not “demand” surgery or choose it as a best option given the information about cost and quality. I did what I was told by someone who knew how to address a problem about which I know nothing. This is what I mean when I said, as I did here, that the suppliers “create demand” in the health care industry.
I was imagining how this situation would have unfolded if I were a British citizen participating in the NHS. Based on my vague sense of how that NHS works, my guess is that the dermatologist would have told me that it was probably a cyst, that we should keep an eye on it, but that it was nothing to worry about and not worth the trouble. Perhaps because there is a history of cancer in my family (my father contracted, and died from, lymphoma at about my age), the doctor would have judged a minor surgery to be a prudent precaution. But perhaps not.
Which solution do I prefer? I prefer the surgery! But that is because everything that I know about the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment options came from providers and insurers who work within our system. What my doctor essentially told me, though in friendlier and more accessible language, was the following:
1. Professional medical opinion suggests your long term health will be improved by the surgery
2. Your insurance company will almost certainly agree with this assessment and will pay for it.
And so, naturally, I believe that the surgery is good and I desire to have it. But in an alternate universe, the NHS doctor might have told me:
1. Professional medical opinion suggests your long term health is best served by watching and waiting
2. You will have to go outside the country and pay out of pocket if you want it removed.
And so, in this case, I would likely believe that the surgery is unnecessary and not desire to have it.
I want to be perfectly clear. I am not saying that my doctor persuaded me to do an unnecessary surgery. For all I know an NHS doctor would have recommended the same thing. I think people should, augmented with good reasoning and information, trust their doctors. And I think in many cases the American system saves and prolongs lives that would be lost in the British system. My point is simply that the decision to have the surgery was made by the system — the negotiated interaction between doctors, scientific and actuarial statistics, and insurance companies — not by me. Furthermore, the system as decision-maker, as opposed to the consumer, is a necessary feature of any modern health care system in which the knowledge of advanced science is used to prolong and improve life.
In a single payer system, the fact that the “system decides” is explicitly acknowledged and included in its procedures of operation and accountability. But a single-payer system is not the only way to address this fundamental feature of modern healthcare. However, the current system in America, as I have described in my previous posts (here and here), completely ignores this factor. It treats health care like it is a consumer good, as though the consumer was the decision-maker. This is false and it is the fundamental cause of our system’s distortions, inefficiencies and injustices.