We pay millions to treat sickness and disease that could have been prevented or treated earlier for far less. When an elderly woman suffers a disabling hip fracture that could have been prevented through earlier detection and treatment of osteoporosis, she pays the human price. Our society pays the financial one. When a child is debilitated by asthma that could have been diagnosed earlier and treated for a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the pain, that child pays the human price. Our society pays the financial one.
Uncompensated care accounts for a huge portion of spending.
It's a hidden tax that makes our system more expensive, less efficient, and less effective. And over and over again, there is a terrible human price. The solution is not to make government the single payer for health care, when we have the best private system in the world, but to keep what works, and to fix what doesn't. Some say the real problem is that we've been afraid to ration health care, to draw the line on who is entitled to certain kinds of care. While there may be limits to what medical science can provide, we as a society do not want to ration good health.