The impact of physician entrepreneurship on escalating health care costs.
Health care costs in this country are escalating at an alarming rate. Many economists predict this rate is unsustainable due to the long-term financial burden on our citizenry. Moreover, our health care delivery is fragmented and wasteful. United States health care is ranked last among the industrialized nations. Proponents of the U.S. system of health care extoll the virtues of our "free market." This article explores the role of physician entrepreneurship in the perversion of the marketplace of health care delivery. Medicine has become overcommercialized at the expense of patients and taxpayers. The time has come to implement legislative measures to redirect our dysfunctional health care system. This article explores the role of physician entrepreneurship in rising health care costs. Under the wrong circumstances, the invisible hand of the free market can become dysfunctional.
Fletcher
Thomas
T
Austin Radiological Association, Austin, Texas 78746, USA. tfletcher@austin.rr.com
D003363:Cost Control; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D016520:Entrepreneurship / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000639:trends*; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000191:economics*; D011871:Radiology / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States