The best way to gain money and power in Washington, is to carefully craft a non-problem, attach a sense of utmost urgency to it, and sell the nation that you are the best and only solution to this newly crafted non-problem.
Secretary Sebelius has done precisely that with her assertion that women are getting gettint the short end of the stick when it comes to healthcare http://healthreform.gov/reports/women/index.html, the problem is that the evidence is weak, and emperically doesn’t work.
In 2006, the last year for which we have complete data, there were 16.3 million hospital discharges of male patients and over 23 million female discharges. Lest you think that this is because of having children, which does contribute, in the over 85 cohort, hospital discharges ran 986,000 for men and 1,982,000 for women.
Sebelius’ arguement also shows a biologic difference between men and women in that premium charges are different. Should this not make sense, doesn’t the term “insurance” imply some offsetting of risk? Quoting from a study entitled Roadblocks to Healthcare: “In particular, women are often charged higher premiums than men during their reproductive years. Holding other factors constant, a 22 year old woman can be charged one and a half times the premium of a 22 year old man.” Ok, so what? We get it, men and women are different. If I were a professional sky diver instructor, don’t you think my life insurance premiums might be a bit higher?
Still, don’t trust me on this, go to any home for the aged and count the number of women to men. Sit inside any emergency room and count the number of women and men patients. Unless you’re at a Veterans Hospital, you will see the real truth. Women consume far more healthcare than do men, live longer and take better care of themselves.
It is approaches like this from appointed stewards of our government that cause people to be distrustfful of their proposed solutions. This is shameful nonsense and precisely why the government needs to get out of healthcare.
Tom
