The consumer is getting screwed because healthcare delivery is a "prisoners dilemma".
i.e. EVERYONE (insurance, care teams, hospitals, clinics, DME, etc) would benefit from reforming the *delivery system* since the existing one is not affordable whether the government pays or not. The problem is that the government is doing a poor to mediocre job of driving reform (I.e., ACOs, CMMI, etc). Those are all great programs but it's not enough fast enough. Insurance chat is such a red herring; it assumes that if we make someone else pay - I.e. the taxpayer - then quality healthcare is affordable. It isn't. And the argument that if the government controlled healthcare payments it could just mandate lower costs is laughable. (see Soviet Union) So the point is, the government should stop worrying about financing mechanisms and use its power of threats to drive reform via more programs like ACOs, beacon communities, etc The solution to healthcare lies with startups, the elimination of the fee-for-service provider payment, getting employers out of the middle, and transparency in pricing. On Feb 16, 2012, at 6:14 AM, Maureen <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 6:05 AM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Obamacare - Is it a tax or not? > > There is a simple comparison that answers this. Do you consider the > fine for not carrying auto insurance to be a tax? If so then the fine > for not carrying healthcare insurance would also be considered a tax. > If not, then no. > > Why is that so hard for people to grasp? It's the exactly what the > insurance companies wanted - for everyone to be required to pay them > money, and for the government to pick up the tab for those who can't > afford to pay for it. The money is going to be paid out anyway - > either directly to the healthcare industry in the form of subsidized > medical care, or through the insurance companies with a huge profit > skimmed off the top. Either way, the consumer gets screwed. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:346989 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
