Quotable Ponderable: A Prescription for Ailing Health Care

It's Notable, Quotable, Ponderable and Worth the Thought

PRESCRIPTION FOR WHAT AILS HEALTH CARE

“One reason many people find health care inaccessible or too expensive is we insist on providing so much of it through highly trained physicians. The idea of finding ways to reduce the years of training doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone. Apart from that, nurse practitioners, nurses and physician assistants could do a lot of what we now rely on doctors to do — and at lower cost. They could also expand access to medical care in poor and rural areas shunned by physicians.

“It's easy to say everyone should get care from doctors. But that's like saying everyone should drive a Volvo. If we limited consumer choices to one ultrasafe nameplate, many people would not be able to afford a car at all. We let individuals make most of their own choices about safety and cost when it comes to their wheels. Why not with medical care? For the last 40 years, every solution to our health-care problems has been a variation on the same theme: more government. Maybe the real answer is more freedom.”

- Columnist Steve Chapman