Jeff Duncan: “we will soon pass some type of patients rights bill, and we need to do this. But it is really sad that it is necessary…”

“we will soon pass some type of patients rights bill, and we need to do this. But it is really sad that it is necessary to do this. Prior to the mid-1960s, medical care in this country was of high quality and very low cost. The cost was low and flat for many, many years. Then the Federal Government got into medical care in a big way and costs exploded and we got things like HMOs. The government took what was then a very minor problem for a very few people and we turned it into a very major problem for everyone. Almost everyone, with the exception of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, could be wiped out by some type of major medical catastrophe. All the government has done is to do what it has always done best, make a very few filthy rich at the great expense to the very many. Look at nursing homes. Those few who were lucky enough to get into the nursing home business, those favored enough to get nursing home licenses, have gotten rich because of government restrictions on the number of nursing homes and the overregulation that always drives small operators out. The result: The cost of nursing home care is probably double or triple what it would be if the government had stayed out and had let the free market operate. Medical care is the only thing we are paying for through a third-party payer system. If we bought cars this way, a Yugo probably would have cost $300,000.…”