Healthcare_Regulation

Health care in America is over regulated. I think all Americans agree that there has to be regulation and rules’ regarding health care, the question is how much. The regulations that are currently in place are very inconsistent as state regulations may not be the same as federal or private regulatory agencies and there is no coordination between the three. One of the significant issues with all of these regulatory bodies is the fact that they cost the American people billions of dollars each year. A 2004 study conducted by Conover concluded that “the annual cost of health services regulation exceeds 339.2 billion. The study attempted to balance the total costs against benefits and based on this analysis concluded that the expense of health regulation outweighed the benefits two to one, costing the average American household 1500 per year.” (Blum, 2006). Our country is spending too much money on regulating and not enough on preventative services. While there is a definitive need for regulation in health care, our current system is too flawed. There needs to be one centralized regulatory body. This body would set the rules for health care and address some of the issues that regulation has yet to solve. For instance, the problem of access, cost containment and quality are areas that need extreme improvements. One approach identified by Kenneth Arrow in 1963, “articulates what might be thought of as a theory o regulation, this revolves around the development of professional ethical codes as essentially a market based strategy. Arrow postulated that if such codes were widely accepted and established as norms, they would self correct for information asymmetries and restore general equilibrium.”(Blum, 2006) The bottom line is that health care in America is overregulated and is not benefiting the system or the patients. A serious overhaul of the system is needed and steps to combine or at least provided some coordination between agencies is not only needed it is required for regulation to regulation to work. I agree with Arrow’s theory that ethical codes should be adopted nationally in an effort to increase quality, access and contain costs. Blum, J.D. (2006). Efficiencies in Health Care Regulation: Observations Near and Far. Annals of Health Law, 15 (2):309–319.