High School Economics - Pay Attention or Pay the Price

Welcome to The Smart Med Card's Thirsty Thursday - falling right on the fist day of September! When I am topic hunting for Thirsty Thursday, I usually generate a few ideas of my own and jot them down just in case news isn't exactly booming. So, the first topic on my list - High School Economics - Pay Attention or Pay the Price.

Supply and Demand
Undoubtedly, we have all taken some sort of Introduction to Economics class, whether it be in High School or College. Unfortunately, the majority of us  probably dismissed that class once it was over. Perhaps we should have delved a bit further in our education?

How our system works (regarding prices) is based off of supply and demand. Producers, in essence, supply a certain quantity of their services and goods at a particular price based on our demand for it. So, if there is a high demand we will see higher prices (producers make more profit). If there is low demand, then we see lower prices (producers need to sell excess supply). Do you sort of get the idea of how our Economy functions?

Now, let's take this to the healthcare industry. How I see it right now, problems of our healthcare costs can be modeled off of the supply and demand curve. The fact that there is such a high demand for doctors, but such a limited supply, that our prices will skyrocket (demand outweighs supply, so healthcare providers can charge more). What needs to happen according to our basic Economic principle is an increase in supply such that it outweighs demand, i.e. supply a greater amount of doctors to cover the high demand of service and prices will fall, in this case due to high competition. Unfortunately, though, we are putting a stop to the ability to supply more doctors.

Why Must we Sue Everyone?
That's right. We have become such a litigious society, that people are making the decisions to not become doctors due to the stresses, not of the job, but of what happens after the job. Because doctors area held to such high standards, it seems they are not allowed to make mistakes. Somehow, they must perform like robots, getting every detail perfect every time. Rather than appreciate the time and effort that they put in trying to save us, as soon as a problem arises, we demand reparations for our discomfort and disability.

Save a Buck Now and Pay Thousands Later?
Here is a second problem causing the dwindling supply of medical providers. It takes time and a vast amount of money to become a doctor. Well over 100,000 dollars will be the average med-students debt before they ever start their actual job. Now, not only will their debt be high, but so will their insurance. So, what money will they be pocketing? Where's the incentive to become a doctor?

Now, what we do to attempt to fix our broken system is to elect a group of people who we tell to fix the problems; to lower costs...etc. What we don't realize is this - we as Americans want lower taxes, higher taxes on the rich, social security...on and on, but, we don't pay any attention to how these programs work and affect us in the long run. If we all payed a fair share of taxes and focused on funding education rather than cutting it, we could provide more funding for medical schools and in turn, produce more doctors;  therefore, greatly reducing the cost of healthcare. Instead, in our unbelievable inability to learn for ourselves how our choices will effect the future - we make the wrong decisions now to save a buck, but then spend thousands later on - when we could have come out ahead by addressing the problems upfront and dealing with them now.

It's Your Turn to Learn
If you ever want to see a medical system that functions according to its design and provides us with the best possible resources at the most affordable prices then we each need to start taking responsibility in learning how our Economic Structure is built and how it runs. Only then will we ever have the chance to utilize the healthcare system that our Elected Officials promise.