When Health Care is Promoted As "Free"

Health expenditures in the United States neared $2.6 trillion in 2010, over ten times the $256 billion spent in 1980. The rate of growth in recent years has slowed relative to the late 1990s and early 2000s, but is still expected to grow faster than national income over the foreseeable future.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this Medicare commercial last night that stated preventative health care services provided by Medicare were "free:"



CMS also uses the word "free" in the description of the new health care law's provisions on their Youtube channel:

"For those with Medicare, the health care law offers most preventive health care services for free."

Describing health care services as "free" dissociates people the cost reality of providing these services. It perpetuates the myth that we can have health care services without having to pay for them. Further, calling services "free" devalues the expertise and cost of facilities and regulatory oversight required to support such services.

Of course, public policy experts who promote these deceptive advertising techniques argue that these ads are justified because they encourage people to participate in preventative health services, thereby saving costs.  But where are the data that these ads really work?    Scientists know the realities of indeterminate, false positive and false negative testing of any screening test.  We know the huge costs of additional testing that occurs in such in instance.   Given our overriding health care cost concerns, should we not insist on proof of the cost-effectiveness of such a large-scale, national approach to preventive medicine services rather blithely assuming it works?

After all, the reality of health care today is that it is anything but "free."

-Wes