Kerby Anderson

When members of Congress once again decide to tackle the difficult issue of health care, they need to look at the reasons health care costs are rising. John Stossel reminds us in a recent column that 7 in 8 health care dollars are paid by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance companies. There is no really free market in health care. That is why costs rose 467 percent over the last three decades.

Health insurance costs will continue to rise because Obamacare mandates various benefits and offers subsidies to lots of people. Here is just a short list of procedures that insurers must cover: birth control, alcohol counseling, depression screening, diet counseling, tobacco use screening, breastfeeding counseling. Some people may want these, but everyone must pay for them due to these mandates.

Perhaps the biggest reason health care costs continue to increase is the fact that someone else is paying for it. John Stossel explains: “We don’t shop around. We don’t ask, ‘Do I really need that test? Is there a place where it’s cheaper?’”

A recent article in the Dallas Morning News illustrated the difference in price if you are willing to shop around. The average charge for heart bypass surgery at one medical center in Plano (a suburb of Dallas) was $241,332. The average for all hospitals in that county was $164,757. That’s quite a difference

If you look at medical areas not covered by insurance you notice something striking. The costs for procedures like plastic surgery or LASIK eye care have actually decreased over time. The National Center for Policy Analysis found that from 1999 to 2011, the price of traditional LASIK eye surgery dropped from over $2,000 to about $1,700.

When members of Congress once again look at health insurance, they need to structure legislation that takes into account the reasons health care costs are rising.