Monopsony: A market situation in which the product or service of several
sellers is sought by only one buyer.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
http://www.bartleby.com/61/83/M0398300.html
The San Francisco Chronicle – October 11-15, 2004
IN CRITICAL CONDITION: HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA
This week, the San Francisco Chronicle has published an excellent series of articles on our health care system:
Why health care costs are rising fast. Plus the Bush and Kerry health care plans.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/11/MNGII96CVP1.DTL
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/11/MNGII96D031.DTL
Retirees hit hard as health benefits are lost.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/12/BUGMN979TS1.DTL
Health care tops the labor-management agenda.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/13/BUGMN97GRD1.DTL
How Canada provides health care for all.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/14/BUGR28JFEN59.DTL
Employees are digging deeper to pay for health insurance.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/15/BUG7T8E81H63.DTL
Don Bechler, Health Care for All – San Francisco, is compiling some talking points in response to this series, especially the article on the Canadian model.
This is my contribution:
Point:
There are major fundamental flaws in our health care system that cannot possibly be corrected by addressing each as an isolated problem. Comprehensive reform will be possible only by forming our own, universal, monopsonistic purchasing system, a single payer system.
Explanation:
Flaws include such factors as an irrational overpricing of certain services and products (e.g., pharmaceuticals), the excessive and expensive administrative burden placed on health care providers, the failure to provide greater incentives for a higher quality, lower cost primary care infrastructure, and the wasteful and detrimental excesses of high tech care in a system characterized by regional and selective excess capacities.
The last point is not receiving enough attention but is extremely important. It is timely now because Health Affairs has released a series of twenty articles on the topic. They can be downloaded for free, but only until October 21! After that time you will need to be a subscriber or will have to purchase each individual article to access them on the Internet.
The Health Affairs articles are listed under “7 October 2004” at:
http://content.healthaffairs.org/webexclusives/index.dtl?year=2004
We cannot possibly control costs and improve quality unless we harness the power of monopsonistic purchasing. And that just happens to have the added advantage of ensuring affordable, comprehensive coverage for everyone.
Don McCanne
