This was an interesting and informative segment. First and foremost, it was heartening to see a Democrat and Republican getting along so well. I hope the relationship between Representatives Sewell and Arrington isn't as rare as our polarized politics would suggest. I don't mean this as a personal attack on Representative Arrington, but one thing that struck me is his insistence that the ACA be repealed so a more market-oriented approach can take its place (though the GOP has no specific healthcare plan to replace Obamacare). Just minutes before that, however, he pointed out that it was precisely the market mechanism that was failing rural America (ie, the volume of patients is too low in rural areas to sustain healthcare facilities). Representative Sewell also noted that the federal healthcare reimbursement rates are too low to provide the same level of care to rural districts that you'd find in more urban regions. The market can do many things, but I think healthcare is the classic example of a market failure for a uniform price for human life, health and well-being is essentially incalculable. Even setting aside the notoriously opaque pricing practices associated with many therapeutics and medical services, the essential fact that healthcare deals with human life makes a market approach much less likely to succeed.
This was an interesting and informative segment. First and foremost, it was heartening to see a Democrat and Republican getting along so well. I hope the relationship between Representatives Sewell and Arrington isn't as rare as our polarized politics would suggest. I don't mean this as a personal attack on Representative Arrington, but one thing that struck me is his insistence that the ACA be repealed so a more market-oriented approach can take its place (though the GOP has no specific healthcare plan to replace Obamacare). Just minutes before that, however, he pointed out that it was precisely the market mechanism that was failing rural America (ie, the volume of patients is too low in rural areas to sustain healthcare facilities). Representative Sewell also noted that the federal healthcare reimbursement rates are too low to provide the same level of care to rural districts that you'd find in more urban regions. The market can do many things, but I think healthcare is the classic example of a market failure for a uniform price for human life, health and well-being is essentially incalculable. Even setting aside the notoriously opaque pricing practices associated with many therapeutics and medical services, the essential fact that healthcare deals with human life makes a market approach much less likely to succeed.