On Healthcare
I’m generally not one to attempt to comment specifically about current events, but I feel dragged into this by the bombardment of chatter on the issue, from every direction.
While it’s absolutely true that a single-payer healthcare system in America would prove disastrous (while certainly being praised in its failure from everyone in favor of it), it can in no way be claimed that our current system is anything less than a disaster itself. The only real benefit the current system has in its favor is that it is run (mostly) by the private sector.
But the illogical nature of full coverage in healthcare makes it wasteful and unsustainable. Insurance is supposed to protect us from the unlikely, not the inevitable. Full coverage discourages the use of bargain hunting, a keystone of capitalism. In a system where there is no bargain shopping, there will be no competition. Prices will go up in perpetuity, which is precisely what we are trying to avoid in a single-payer system.
Sure, the federal government shouldn’t be involved in your healthcare, but we’ll still have rising healthcare costs. If you want to fix that, I suggest getting a high deductible “emergency” policy, and a Health Savings Account, then call around and find the cheapest doctor in town. Hunt for bargains, ask what things cost, and spend wisely — because it’s your money on the line now.
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When I watched Michael Moore’s film ‘Sicko’, I was mostly struck by the fact that his main criticism of the insurance industry was the frequency of absurd denials of care to people with debilitating and/or deadly diseases, denials of treatments recommended by their doctors. It was in no way his only criticism, but it certainly spent the lion’s share of the running time showing these stories. Whether this means that it Moore’s primary complaint, or whether it was thought the pathos of these stories would more readily convince than numbers like costs, wait times, the uninsured, etc., I don’t know.
But this is a perfectly valid point. The business model of insurance companies is to avoid providing the advertised services as much as possible. Why shouldn’t they? They are answerable to their shareholders, not their clients, in a market where (as you pointed out) there is very little competition and a great deal of disinformation. However, the answer to this is not a single-payer system. The answer is stricter regulations for the industry, regulations that possess the teeth to call these practices what they are:
Fraud.
I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard similar reports. And in that case, his movie is “right on”, as they say. The healthcare industry is, in large part, screwed up because of so-called full health coverage. As you pointed out, it doesn’t necessarily cover everything, and because the insurance company is paying, they get to make the final calls on treatment. But I don’t necessarily think that the denial of payouts is the problem. There’s a lot of fraud in the insurance business, so they have to be careful.
But exacerbating the issue is the fact that full health insurance will inevitably make healthcare costs go up. It costs me $30 to go to the doctor. It probably costs the insurance company another $150 to pay for my office visit, but I never see that cost. My doctor could raise his fees and I’d never know. And that’s exactly what they do … because they can! I have no reason NOT to go to the doctor every time I feel a little sick. It costs me less than a tank of gas, until my premiums go up. But even those costs are largely hidden, because my employer pays my premium. I never see that cost, but it’s there. My employer doesn’t feel the hit because he just passes the cost on to me by paying me less or not giving me as big a raise as he otherwise might have.
As long as all these costs remain mostly hidden, the price of healthcare can continue to creep upward with no limit.
There’s no easy answer. You can regulate the companies to make sure they pay out more claims and deny people less. But that doesn’t help with cost … in fact it may make costs go up. You could prohibit companies from providing healthcare to employees and encourage they purchase their own coverage, but that’s a little too much government for my tastes.
I’m afraid that the only real solution to a problem like this is an informed and active population. Nobody can fix this but us.
Health insurance doesnt work in the US. If you cant afford it (it is very expensive) you dont have it. We do have programs to provide insurance to those that cant afford it,
but it is primarily for children. You can choose any treatment you want as long as you are going to pay for it. If you do have insurance the insurance company pretty much
tells you what they will pay for, otherwise you are on your own. Insurance companies rule in the US, and if you dont like it…..too bad.