Who Pays For it All?

The article entitled "Why Health Care Will Never Be Equal", written by N. Gregory Mankiw, started off talking mostly about philosophy which is a very intriguing topic when trying to discuss health care. And then the article made a switch and took a very interesting position about how, with the increasing prescription technology and also price, will many Americans be able to afford new drug treatment to get the best quality health care. Mankiw begins to talk about this magic pill that if you take it, you will never get sick, age, or die, the only downfall is that is costs $150,000 a year, which brings up the question "who pays for it all." Should the government be responsible for providing this unbelievable service, the insurance agencies, or should the price be bared solely by the individual? This is where the problem arises, with medical care becoming more and more advanced, it is also getting more and more expensive, leaving the millions of Americans no access to these expensive, but possibly life saving, procedures simply because of their lack of funds.
The reason why people are so drawn to universal health care is because they think that it will be able to provide the best treatment to everyone. That, unfortunately, will not be the case. At some point the universal health care system will be exasperated off its funds and be forced to not pay for certain, more likely expensive uncommon, procedures and medication. And that is where the question is brought up again. Who gets the magical pill that makes you live forever and how will it be paid for?

This article was posted in the New York Times on September 19, 2009 and can be found at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/health/policy/20view.html?scp=10&sq=health%20care%20economics&st=cse