Thanks for the insurance primer. Alas, I already new this stuff. I teach math at the local community college. In some of the classes, I teach about probability using risk tables and such. I still think you are missing the point. If health insurance were like car insurance, would it be a better product? Would increased competition create better service and coverage?
When you talk about risk coverage, I was asking what is the bottom line for risk coverage. Can some insurance companies cover pregnancy and others not? Is there a set of conditions all insurance companies must meet? Comparing apples to oranges, take cars for example. All cars have to meet a certain standard before they can be sold. They have to have a set of safety features and such. Is this the same with health insurance? I am guessing no. If health insurance companies all had the same baseline product and employers let the employees choose their health care provider through something like escrow accounts or personal health care accounts, would insurance become a better product? If insurance became a better product, would health care follow suit? >Add to this that the cost of health care is rising because: >1.) More treatment options I disagree. More options usually lead to better pricing. When hospitals compete, you win. >2.) Poor administrative structure I agree completely. Having seen it from both sides, I can say it is probably worse than you can imagine. >3.) Little consumer power. I agree. Consumer power comes from choice. There is little choice. Regardless, health care is a mess. It is getting worse. On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 11:58 PM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Jerry wrote: > > > > I think you misunderstood, which is not unusual. I want more choice. > > > > My greatest frustration with this issue is that nobody seems to > understand how insurance works when it comes to health. They think > it's some sort of magical money tree. > > When you "buy" insurance you are actually selling risk. Insurance > companies take a look at your product and make smart buys. That's > true for all insurance: car, home, auto, life, health, etc. > > So the reason that people are not covered or denied care or whatever > is actually because their 'risk product' is not appealing to any > buyers - insurance companies. > > Crash your car, your rates go up. Hit a kid, nobody will insure you. > Same with health insurance. > > Add to this that the cost of health care is rising because: > > 1.) More treatment options > 2.) Poor administrative structure > 3.) Little consumer power. > > What the government is great at is solving market failures: Moon > landing. Military. Freeway system. And healthcare. > > Think of the health care problem like IT: > > * lots of business stakeholders who all need X right away > > * lots of resulting projects, many providing duplicative functionality > > * lots of staff, ever growing, many providing duplicative functionality > > The solution is an integrated strategy that decomposes necessary > functionality and ensures each function is fully provisioned and > maintained. > > That'll take a LOOONG time though, so the first thing to do is get > everyone coverage via programs such as in Massachusetts. > > Or something > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:293484 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
