Socialized Health Care in the USA

[Concillian]

I don't think any of this is a convincing argument against insurance being priced at a market rate, perhaps slightly adjusted for transaction costs. Insurers, providers, employers, unions and individuals, if they are rational, are all bargaining against one another, and none has an incentive to take less than they can get, or offer more than they can get away with.

I dunno, if I go to the dentist and tell them I'm out of insurance coverage for the year and will need to pay out of pocket, they'll right away, without asking whack anywhere from 20-50% off the price of whatever I'm having done. How that doesn't count as insurance fraud is beyond me, but it's pretty common.

There's no doubt in my mind that the way the healthcare system works in the US is pretty messy due to the hidden nature of the pricing structure from both employers and end consumers.

Anyway, it sounds like what Obama is wanting to do is to have an insurance option where the deal between the insurance company and the end consumer is negotiated by the government rather than an employer. It doesn't sound like it will be government subsidized insurance, but basically the same thing people get now, just negotiated by different people. Potentially there is a larger "group benefit" due to the size, but there's potentially additional middlemen. The only way I see this being very beneficial is if they are somehow able to negotiate better than existing companies, which is probably pretty realistic in the case of small business offerings where they would have virtually no negotiating power at all as a company of <100 people, and must take whatever is offered.

I admit I haven't studied his proposal in detail, but from what I've seen there is no proposal for complete government run healthcare. In fact the proposal sounds more like what kandrathe was talking about for his garbage or schools than socialized health care.