The Middlemen
Cartoon published 04/16/2025
Health care and college expenses are way too high and though many citizens complain, solutions are few.
I avoided hospitals for most of my life and I refused to go even when my condition was dire. I finally did go and now I know all too well just how expensive it is. My surgery, radiation, immunotherapy and chemotherapy, scans, doctor visits, port installation, blood draws…well, it went on and on and the bills went on and on to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our healthcare system is broken—even my oncologist told me that. Part of the problem lies in big salaries for doctors (they deserve them), high administrative costs, and enormous prices for equipment and pharmaceuticals. My seven month stint of immunotherapy cost $55,000 per session. It’s not for me to say how much a company can charge for their goods, but someone has to pay and most can’t pay it. The costs are passed on through outfits such as Medicare and big insurance companies. The latter often bargains with hospitals to get prices down, but it’s not for the benefit of patients. The insurance companies want profit—it’s a business—and they are there to protect their shareholders. They often refuse treatments recommended by doctors to drive down costs and drive up their own profit.
Adding to the problem is the fact that people are living longer, but they are also we are less healthy due to bad food and environmental pollution. Robert Kennedy Jr. wants to do something about that, and he has our full support.
The cost of a college education has also gotten out of hand. When I went to college back in the olden days I was able to pay for it all myself. I worked full time at night and went to school during the day. This is no longer possible. Unless they have wealthy parents, students must take out humongous loans to pay for their education. This is where the middlemen big banks stepped in. The universities seized that opportunity to raise prices. Textbooks often cost hundreds of dollars. The more desirable universities are able to continually raise prices due to popular demand. The banks like rising costs—more money for their shareholders.
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Less than 10 percent of pre-World War II Americans went to college. High school degrees had higher value back then. Nowadays, going to college has become a right of passage. Most young people want to go and get a degree, even if that degree does not fetch them a job better than a barista. They become saddled with student loan debt for the rest of their lives. Declare bankruptcy? Not possible. Big bank lobbyists made sure Congress passed legislation to disallow that….and that’s not right. Everyone should be able to declare bankruptcy. It’s the bank’s responsibility to be more judicious when meting out loans. They should pay the price.
The university price problem is solvable. Young people need to stop going. Refuse to take out loans. Instead, they can go to trade school or start their own business. Become plumbers, construction workers, and nurses. High school degrees have lost their value and non-technical university degrees are losing value, too. Not everyone needs to go to college—especially those institutions where professors train students to be socialists. Stop giving government grants to Harvard. That place already has so much money that it’s ridiculous.
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The healthcare problem is far more difficult to solve, but we know Obamacare was a flop. All it did was guarantee more money to big insurance companies. Everyone knows healthcare is a necessity so the middlemen crowd in to grab a big share of the money involved. Capitalism would solve a lot of the price problems, but instead hospitals are consolidating and options just aren’t there. The AMA makes sure doctors adhere to their rigid agenda, unlike 100 years ago when alternative and often more effective medicinal practices were allowed.
Do we listen to Bernie Sanders and dole out free eduction and free healthcare? That would be disastrous. As Milton Friedman once said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Someone has to pay and taxpayers would get socked while the quality of socialized medicine and education would plummet.
Getting rid of the middlemen might help. Too often they are blocking people from healthcare and education.
— Ben Garrison
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