Socialized Health Care in the USA

[kandrathe]

It is this system that you seem so hellbent on protecting, where insurance companies are the only providers of health care, that caused this.

First, let me establish what I think we can agree upon. The insurance companies offer a complicated contract which requires careful government oversight to prevent fraud. Most of the horror stories you hear about health care relate to fighting with insurance companies to honor their side of the contract, or with care givers who are more worried about how they will be paid, than they are about how they are delivering excellent service. The insurance industry has become wealthy enough to form a powerful lobbying group, and has influenced the government to "protect their interests".

This is your free market, protected, as it is, by the government.

I've been calling for the review of special laws that favor the insurance industry, such as restricting portability, and tying your policy to your employment. COBRA is a joke, because the last thing anyone needs when they lose their job is an additional $1200 bill every month. But, there are also laws that force insurance companies to cover procedures that are optional behavior, as we've discussed. I would also get the government out of business of telling insurance companies what their products should look like.

I can't see how any fair minded individual can look at that article and conclude that if there was no government, things would be okay, but we shouldn't dare touch the companies. I look at that and conclude that the insurance companies are the root cause.

I'm not defending insurance companies. If they are to continue to exist, they need to offer a fair service with government oversight laws to prevent fraud. But, I don't believe the answer is to elevate the federal government into the insurance company of last resort to compete against them. This is what Medicare and Medicaid already are, and for 50% of the mess the government is contributing to the problem. The other 50% is a mess of regulations and protections that probably favor no one, but if anyone, the insurance companies.

Chiropractics is another field of care that due to skepticism has existed outside the insurance umbrella, and they have also moved into the retainer model (monthly subscription whether you use it or not, plus a per visit charge). I would think that from the doctors perspective, they would find the most valuable patients to be those with pre-existing conditions. It is only the insurance industry that shuns the unhealthy. Rather than focus on trying to make insurance affordable for that morbidly obese 65 year old, chain smoking, alcoholic with emphysema and type II diabetes, we should focus on making health care and health care access more affordable so this poor soul can afford to pay for his own care.

The bottom line is that I would like to see health providers being able to freely negotiate care with those who need care. A person may have a separate relationship with a health insurance policy, but then that relationship should exist only between the contractual parties. I want to make life harder for insurance companies by changing the existing laws to give the people better, cheaper choices for their policies. If they don't want you as a customer, then that is their freedom for how they do business.

As a compassionate society, we need to consider what to do with people who are sick but cannot afford to pay for their own care. But, that is hardly the mess we are in now.