Is the health care question more about insurance or cost of medical care?
Posted on Mar 08, 2008 under Insurance Information |The message seems to be to make insurance available to everyone. Is that what we really need or what is the solution in your opinion?
March 8th, 2008 at 6:35 am
1. If you could change ONE thing about our health care system, what would that be?
The financing. Instead of hundreds of profit-seeking health insurers, money should be collected and bills paid by a single government payer.
At present, insurance company overhead and the paperwork that inflicts on doctors and hospitals wastes more than $350 billion a year — money that could cover the uninsured and eliminate co-payments and deductibles for those who currently have partial coverage. Progressive income taxes would be paid, just as we now do for other financially socialized benefits such as libraries, the police, schools, Social Security and, in the health area, for Medicare. Because of the huge administrative savings, a single payer system could cover everyone without expending any more dollars.
2. Most people agree that the costs are out of control. What can be done about that?
By far, the fastest growing element of cost is wasteful health administration. The number of doctors increased 2.5-fold from 1970 to 2005, largely in proportion to growth in the population. The number of registered nurses grew a bit more slowly. But the number of health administrators increased 26-fold during the same interval.
Another rapidly growing cost is the price of prescription drugs. Unlike all other developed countries where prescription drug prices are negotiated or controlled — and as we do for the Department of Defense and for the Veterans’ Administration — the costs for everyone else in this country are largely out of control and, for many, unaffordable.
The single payer approach could cut paperwork costs drastically, and force drug prices down.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:35 am
I think both issues have to be addressed but right now he focus on getting people covered. A person can work their whole life & lose everything because they don't have insurance. Of couse hospital bills can be so expensive that a person can still go bankrupt with insurance. We need to make alot of changes this issues have really been ignored for too long.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:35 am
I think that neither candidates health care plans adequately deal with the true problem- cost. If health care was made more affordable, more people would buy it. Plain and simple. How to make it more affordable? Better malpractice/negligence laws to protect against frivolous lawsuits and rising malpractice insurance costs for doctors. Reform insurance laws., etc.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Both !!
What ever happened to taking "personal responsibility" ? When you get pulled over by a Law Enforcement Officer, "ignorance of the law is NO EXCUSE!"
Should a person being charged with Intoxication Manslaughter be able to blame their IGNORANCE on someone else??
I have NOTHING against helping the elderly and the young.
I DO have a problem SUPPORTING the people that do NOT want to get off of their butts and EARN an honest living - instead of "leeching" off of hard working citizens.
AND they teach their children, and their children's children HOW to DO NOTHING !!
Just realize … that those of us that ACTUALLY have to work for a living, are getting tired of PAYING for the Democrats idea of HELPING.
Shouldn't MANDATORY Urine Tests be REQUIRED of people that are requesting "government handouts"?
IF you are on LEGAL prescription drugs, then you will not have a problem proving it !!
March 8th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Thanks for noticing the distinction too many do NOT!
Unfortunately, because the majority of people HAVE insurance AND the government refuses to enforce antitrust laws or contract laws for insurance, the few big insurers have completely ruined the system to make unearned blood money.
Here's the fix, then I'll give you evidence of what the REAL problems are:
QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE health care for all.
That means preventative care (physical with follow up). Real medication (no Medicare "donut holes" the really ill are ripped off again.) No bogus ridiculously low "caps" on needed medical procedures. No abuse of the ER. No paying for the silly with the sniffles to go to the doc for free. No more bankruptcies over medical bills. I want THIS plan that ends abuse of the taxpayer, takes the burden off employers, provides price transparency, and ends the rip-off of the US taxpayer at the hands of greedy insurance CEOs (which has been repeatedly documented).
http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.html
Read the PDF, not the blurb, for the bulk of the plan. Book is searchable on Amazon.com
Cassandra Nathan's Save America, Save the World
What's really wrong–short version:
When 75% of the people who declare bankruptcy over medical bills ARE INSURED, then insurance is CLEARLY not the answer.
"Aldrich’s situation is "asinine" but increasingly common, said Dr. Deborah Thorne of Ohio University. Thorne, co-author of a widely quoted 2005 study that found medical bills contributed to nearly half of the 1.5 million personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year, said that ratio has likely worsened since the data was gathered.
…
Like Aldrich, Thorne said, three-quarters of the individuals in the study who declared bankruptcy because of health problems were insured. "
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201807/
Linda Peeno, MD testified that SHE had often denied treatment JUST to save the insurance company money http://www.thenationalcoalition.org/DrPeenotestimony.html
Furthermore:
"the vast majority of health insurance policies are through for-profit stock companies. They are in the process of “shedding lives” as some term it when “undesirable” customers are lost through various means, including raising premiums and co-pays and decreasing benefits (Britt, “Health insurers getting bigger cut of medical dollars,” 15 October 2004, investors.com). That same Investors Business Daily article from 2004 noted the example of Anthem, another insurance company. They said the top five executives (not just the CEO) received an average of an 817 percent increase in compensation between 2000 and 2003. The CEO, for example, had his compensation go from $2.5 million to $25 million during that time period. About $21 million of that was in stock payouts, the article noted.
A 2006 article, “U.S. Health Insurance: More Market Domination, More CEO Compensation”
(hcrenewal.blogspot.com) notes that in 56 percent of 294 metropolitan areas one insurer “controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting." In addition to having the most enrollees, they also are the biggest purchasers of health care and set the price and coverage terms. “’The results is double-digit premium increases from 2001 and 2004—peaking with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003—soaring well above inflation and wages increases.’" Where is all that money going? The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article looking at the compensation of the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. His salary and bonus is $8 million annually. He has benefits such as the use of a private jet. He has stock-option fortunes worth $1.6 billion."
–Save America, Save the World by Cassandra Nathan pp. 127-128
"Insurance Companies Robbing Patients
Robbing patients to pay CEOs leads to unprecedented medical insurance corporation greed.
Thursday, January 3, 2008 8:52 AM
By: Michael Arnold Glueck & Robert J. Cihak, The Medicine Men"
http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medical_insurance/2008/01/03/61543.html
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