Pay attention to the teacher

The COVID-19 crisis has given us an opportunity to discuss the health care system from an unemotional and objective viewpoint.

Such new developments as the four different analyses that show the overblown expecta-tions for shutdowns and the childlike tearing down of stat-ues because a criminal cop murdered a criminal black man, should caution us on knee jerk reactions. It is a pity that the costs of the shutdowns and riots will be felt by everyone and recognized by few as di-rect costs from these mistakes.

George P. Shultz has been a government bureaucrat so long that his foolish opinions in office can cause me to dis-miss anything he says. But a column he co-wrote with Vidar Jorgensen in the Wall Street Journal comparing Singapore's medical care to that of our own, should be an important element if we wish to improve our miserable record here.

Of our gross domestic product, 18 percent is dedicat-ed to health care. In Singapore, 5 percent goes to a system that produces a life expectancy of 85.2 years compared to 78.7 here. Singapore's maternal and infant mortality rates are less than half of ours.

Here are some of the differ-ences:

• In Singapore all health care providers must post prices and outcomes.

• All Singaporeans are re-quired to fund their own health savings accounts. I don't usu-ally favor government force in such matters but look at the people at the State Fair and whose health care you are forced to fund. Singaporeans are also required to buy cata-strophic coverage. But with the savings accounts they can pocket the savings generated by healthy living and informed choices.

• There is still MediFund that covers special situations. To me this looks like a possible problem, as we have seen all government programs inevita-bly expand over the years.

Transparency and competi-tion have led to costs that are 75 percent lower in Singapore than they are here. Heart valve replacement is $12,500 com-pared to $160,000. Knee re-placement is $13,000 compared to $40,000 here. Here at home, Lasik and cosmetic surgery both have falling prices be-cause they are not covered by insurance.

Encouraging signs are eve-rywhere that show we are on a path toward diverting cash from heath care to other things. That does not mean health care will suffer as a result as we might think in a world where cost is falsely associated with quality, such as in public school budgets.

Walmart has instituted fi-nancial incentives for employ-ees who shop around with second opinions and alternative courses of action. These em-ployees have found that 50 percent of spine operations and 30 percent of hip and knee replacements can be eliminated with alternative therapies.

Our brilliant, yet ignored Constitution was written years after the British citizens here threw out their government. It gave the authors time to un-derstand what was wrong with the system they rejected. The limitations imposed by that Constitution are largely ig-nored today resulting in the excessive waste incurred today and calls for, ironically, escala-tions in the same old socialist system.

Since starting farming 40 years ago without previous experience, the most important thing we've learned was to learn from others.

Here's our chance. Any responses to The Alternative may be sent as a letter to the editor or to Fritz’s email address 4selfgovernment@gmail.com. His blog, www.alternativebyfritz.com, is now being updated regularly. It's diverse, like the universities claim to be.