Zaniya Still Alive, Along with the Bumbling Free Market

The Zaniya Project final report on expanding health coverage in South Dakota arrived at the beginning of the month without much media attention. But don't be fooled: it's still out there, and it will be on the agenda for the 2008 legislature. Terry Woster reports that, even though the task force failed to fulfill its mandate and left the hard work of cost estimates to the legislature, Governor Rounds and "at least some legislators" are considering crafting legislation based on the task force proposals [Terry Woster, "Task Force Ideas Weighed," that Sioux Falls paper, 2007.10.29].

If our legislators can't work up the courage to challenge the profiteers and give us genuine universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care, maybe they should first focus on the health information technology proposals of the Zaniya Project and add some consumer protection measures against the rampant billing errors that are costing responsible citizens thousands of dollars. An AP report this morning quotes one health care consumer advocate saying she finds multiple errors in 8 out of 10 hospital bills she looks at [AP, "Medical-Bill Errors Increasingly Common," Yahoo News, 2007.10.29].

That would match our personal experience: after our daughter was born, nearly every call we made to our private insurer revealed yet another error in our billing or other information. Gee, when you pay $300 a month, don't you expect the people getting your money to at least be able to add and type correctly?

Many of the Madville Times's guests say the government can't do anything right. From the looks of it, the free market isn't doing a bang-up job with health care, either, not even on a simple thing like billing. Maybe a little regulation from the state -- say, double-your-money-back guarantee on any billing error? free coupon for your next appendectomy? -- would scare our profiteering insurers into doing their math right and bring costs down for everyone. People can argue that individuals should take responsibility for their own health care, but they shouldn't have to spend hours and days checking the math with the professionals whose job it is to do the bills right in the first place.