Where do you come up with these figures? Have they been fed to you or are
they just off the top of your head?
You did get to the meat of the problem however. We might have great medical
care here in us. But getting it and being able to have access to it is a
totally different story. And that is what we're talking about.
As for letting the free market work for insurance companies, I'm all for
that. Let's stop requiring insurance for damn near everything. Let's make it an
option. Do you want to buy a house? You don't have to buy fire insurance. You
want to drive a car? You don't have to have whatever insurance. You want to
live a few years more? You don't have to buy health insurance. But the option
could be there if you do.
I agree that the problem lays in prices charged. But I also believe it's
our insurance industry that's created this problem, not the lack of free market.
It may seem counterintuitive, but the reason you have home owner's
insurance is to benefit the mortgage carriers, not you; your car
insurance is to keep others' insurance from going up too high and for
the public agencies that cover the ininsured [unless you live in a state
where this doesn't exist]--that's why it's required. Requiring you to
have health insurance keeps the hospitals from charging insured patients
higher fees to cover uninsured patients, and keeps your taxes from
covering uninsured patients in expensive emergency rooms.
You'll pay more by not having insurance when you get sick and suffer a
medical bankruptcy. Insured patients pay more--providers will charge
them more. When everyone is covered by nonprofit and/or public
insurance, the costs are reduced significantly. Used to be the best
health insurers were private nonprofits like Kaiser Permanente or BC/BS.
By switching to a for-profit system in the US, rates skyrocketed,
out-of-pocket expenses for insured patients also went up, while
insurance co. profits ballooned.
There's no free market. Never has been. Get over it. Deal with the
economy as it exists, not in some utopian, fear-inspired fantasy. Good
health, quality education, a stable economy with manufacturing, and a
clean environment are as important to our security as diplomacy and our
military. Who will be healthy and educated well enough to create and run
our new clean high tech [and other] industries?
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