Ten Principles:
How Our Health Care System Works
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Ten Principles
"Studies show that people can voluntarily cut their medical care consumption by 30 percent without any adverse effects on health."
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What follows is a brief description of some of the most important features of our health care system. [See the sidebar on the Ten Principles.] Other reports available from the NCPA elaborate on these findings.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 1: Patients and their doctors respond to economic incentives.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 2: Health care spending has been rising because the share of costs paid by patients has been falling.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 3: Because of government policies, most Americans are overinsured.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 4: Because of government policies, many Americans are uninsured.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 5: Increases in health care spending result mainly in higher prices rather than more services.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 6: The main cause of rising health care spending is government, which now accounts for more than half of our health care dollars.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 7: Because of third-party insurance and government subsidies, the cost of health care is largely hidden from most American families.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 8: Because of third-party insurance and government subsidies, the most costly services are often the cheapest to patients and vice versa.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 9: Increase in real health care spending cost the economy in terms of fewer other goods and services.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 10: Government attempts to help people buy health insurance often lead to more people being uninsured.
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![[See the sidebar on the Ten Principles.]](http://www.ncpa.org/gif/pi/health/hcbb1.gif){kind=link}