Finally! Someone has finally had the nerve to point out that the reason we’re no longer paying 1960s-era prices for healthcare is in part due to the fact that the highest cost expenditures for hospitals have long since evolved from being ‘clean linens’, as was the case in 1960. I’ve been screaming this at the TV every time I see a politician waxing sentimental about healthcare costs of yesteryear. Yeah, well, I’d love to see how they’d like to settle for the healthcare benefits of the 1960s as they’re battling a serious infection, treatable cancers, or some other previously incurable disease. Not that I’m wishing ill on anyone, but seriously, so many diseases that we can easily cure today weren’t even named by the 1960s! Let’s remember, all was not so cheery back then, as yes, we were paying far less, but receiving far less care. As quality goes up, as services go up, so must prices.
Another large part I’ve been dying to see someone mention? Gee, government involvement which certainly keeps the healthcare market in this country from truly being ‘free’ and ‘capitalistic’, which would keep prices more in line with what the market expects to pay for them. Any time a politician says our healthcare market is currently free, or that Obama’s plan would only provide for an infusion of capitalistic competition into our healthcare market, I can’t help but laugh as I’m gagging on their dishonesty.

And who finally had the nerve to say all these things? Shock of shocks, the Washington Post. This is one of the signs of the apocalypse, isn’t it?
You really have to read this recent op-ed from George F. Will, it’s a spectacular piece of honesty.

Healthcare is complicated these days, as more and more services are provided by hospitals and we expect bigger, better, more miraculous care. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with those expectations, so long as we aren’t expecting miraculous 21st century care with a 1960s-vintage price tag. Let’s stop looking backward, shall we? We must stop looking backward at the prices of yesteryear, and we absolutely must stop looking backward at outdated models of government-run healthcare that have already proven to be spectacular failures in every single nation that has dared try such experiments. Why look backward when we expect our healthcare to look forward? I can guarantee you that no American will tolerate the long waits and routinely denied care of socialized medicine. Let’s try something different for a change; let’s try something that has a proven track record in every market to which it has been applied, yet hasn’t been truly and completely applied to healthcare: truly free capitalism.

Don’t you think the economy would have been far better served if every man, woman, and child had gotten that $30,000 Representative Grayson spoke about? If spending is supposedly going to kickstart our economy, that certainly would have worked. Or better yet, they could have – *gasp* – saved it! Instead, we have absolutely no clue what the hell happened with that money. Poof, gone! And the Inspector General of the Fed can’t even answer the question about who’s minding the store.
Incredible. Your government at work, ladies and gentlemen. And these are the people we want in control of our healthcare? Brilliant!
Huge kudos to Representative Alan Grayson for asking the tough questions that need to be asked. And by the way, he’s a Democrat. We need a few more like you, sir.

(hat tip to my friend Joey for the link and to the DailyBail.com for publicizing this video.)