"Interstate insurance purchasing is a sham. Insurance companies would do the exact same thing credit card companies did and find the state with the least amount of regulations and make their home there...ever wonder why there are so many credit card businesses in Delaware? "
That's where the gov't should come in. It should make sure the insurance industry is regulated properly and fairly. "Tort reform isn't the answer either. We need the ability to sue doctors and hospitals when they fuck up, otherwise there will be nothing to limit the crackpots that shouldn't be practicing first aid, let alone medicine." You do understand that tort reform does not mean doing away with lawsuits? The most common concept of tort reform now deals with limiting punitive damages (not eliminating punitive damages). By limiting punitive damages, doctors would have lower malpractice premiums, leading to lower prices. Trial lawyers are adamantly against this, therefore, so are most Democrats. "As far as what drives up costs to us, it's the paperwork and endless hoops the insurance industry puts the doctors through...medicare is pennies compared to that. For profit hospitals are not much better." No doubt. Though medicare/medicaid puts doctors through just as many hoops as regular insurance, maybe even more. You may or may not know that the percentage of doctors refusing to take medicare and/or medicaid is steadily rising. Here are two links to articles. One at the right wing bastion CNN<http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/01/news/economy/medicare_cuts_rates_consumer_impact/index.htm>and the other at the even further right WSJ <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993462778328019.html>. Also, Walgreens in some states has stopped accepting medicare/medicaid for prescriptions. " It's insane what the insurance companies do to try and not pay doctors." Medicare/medicaid is just as bad if not worse. See the links above. As an aside, do you think there will be more or less paperwork when private insurance is ran out of business? I will assume that you think less. "This industry need to be shot in the head and dumped in a shark filled lagoon...though I might have some sympathy for the sharks as they would probably get indigestion. " It's broken. It needs to be fixed. Unfortunately, a gov't ran system will be worse. "While every system has it's horror stories, ours has more horror stories than good ones. The Canadian, UK, and other systems of socialized medicine have their horror stories too, but those are a drop in the bucket compared to the success stories. . . . Don't take this as me saying that socialized medicine is perfect, but it is a lot closer to perfect than ours is by leaps and bounds." Wow. You honestly believe this. I won't even attempt to address it, but I'll add that you should probably throw Cuba onto your list. "The quality of care has nothing to do with the insurance companies...that has to do with great doctors and all of the research hospitals and schools we have here as well as breakthroughs made by the pharmaceutical industry (which to me is only better than the insurance companies in that they actually do give back in the form of research and new drugs...at least the new drugs that don't kill people...)" Actually it does. I would say that almost all doctors like to get paid (a few missionaries or civic minded people may not). In socialized medicine (ie: single payer), there will be no incentive to see patients. As imperfect as insurance is, at least the doctors get paid. The more they see, the more they cure/help, the more they make. You may try to argue that medicare/medicaid pays, but that contradicts the trend in doctors refusal to accept those two services. "The VA's health care is great. " Okaaay. I'll take your word for it. "I revel in the doom of the insurance industry too...so what's your point." I can tell you're excited about single payer, regardless of its effect on healthcare. The good thing, I guess, is that everyone will have equal care. It will be shitty care, but it will be equal. "Because he no longer had to deal with insurance, and thus did not have to employ his office staff for me, he was able to drop his rates for me to 80/hr..." I have seen doctors who charge two rates. One for insurance and one without. As you say, the latter is cheaper. Interesting enough, your 80 an hour figure reminded me of a doctor in New York I read about. His name is John Muney. He started a health service for 79$ per month with $10 a visit. The insurance industry and the state did not like him circumventing their administrative and financial nightmare, so they made him change his service. There was a public outcry and he got to change back to a modified version of his system. The point: he used an affordable system that worked for non-catastrophic illness and the STATE tried to prevent him from doing it. You cannot trust government to have anyone's best interest at heart. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:317719 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
