The problem is that there is NO perfect system, period. And attempts to go from 90% good to 95% good hit diminishing returns to the point that the quality of care for those who are covered will drop from 80% down to 40%. That's not a worthy trade off. Might sound callus, but that 5% added coverage doesn't compensate for the 40% drop in quality. The more people you try to cover, the worse the quality will become invariably due to the economics involved. Then you get people who would have otherwise lived longer or lived period if the care quality had been maintained at 80%, but didn't because the care quality dropped to 40% to accommodate the extra 5% that weren't covered. How is that fair for them? It's an imperfect world and unfair, somewhere someone is going to get burned. The best that can be done is to try and optimize the system as best can be done.
This is coming from a person who's been on BOTH ends of the health care issue after having had a major injury without health insurance and now having good coverage.
I agree. We should optimize the system by removing things like middleman inefficiencies such as insurers. The overhead cost of administrating the structure is a drag on all the potential beneficiaries, which can be removed. Systems that profit solely on irrational models such as continual growth or loss in the service and profit in the penalties should be either highly regulated or just outright made illegal.
When you no longer have a choice to not join something like a health insurer or a union, something is very wrong. It's supposed to be a free country, and saying "Well you're free to just take your chances of dying of failure to afford surgery" is not an acceptable counter. When the alternatives are all made untenable in a practical form free choice and free markets become a sham.
While I'm not intimately familiar with the US system, it does seem to be a peculiarly self interested way of doing things. And the surprising thing is how strongly most Americans believe in it somehow ...
The way it basically works is even moderate care like regular checkups and the occasional illness will be enough to bankrupt most people if paid out of pocket. Insurers pay 90% or more of this, leaving the rest as a co-pay (which varies depending on each service) to be paid by the insuree. If the insurer decides that for whatever reason they consider the medical care unnecessary or not their problem (pre-existing condition), they can refuse to pay, effectively forcing someone to choose between bankruptcy and permanent disability or death. They may also decide this after the fact, leaving you stuck with a surprise bill you thought was covered. Trying to fight back in court is a laughable prospect considering the resources a company that size can bring to bear and how long it would take to even get to a hearing.
The majority of idiots see the insurers as "saving" them from "the big bad pharma companies and overcharging doctors" by paying most of their cost as long as they maintain suitable employment and don't actually get sick.
Pretty much. Doctors and insurance companies are only concerned about the money. They don't actually care about our health and well being. Ambulance prices alone are insane compared to other places and then you get to all the real stuff like xrays and surgery and so on.
Health Insurance is such a huge fraud, especially if the system is trying to force it to be mandatory to purchase -private- insurance.
Health insurance, at its very core, is a welfare system. Everyone else pays in whether or not they use it, in order to fund the people who use it. Including those who abuse the insurance system and only have their premiums increased slightly.
In Canada, it's worked into the taxes. Everyone pays in, and it goes to fund the system and you cannot be turned away for essential services. In this case, it means the welfare exists as a government system anyway.
Of course, most Americans hear things like "Communism" and get uptight, but if you try to have them describe the health insurance system, it works just the same way. Yet they think this is a good thing.
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This is coming from a person who's been on BOTH ends of the health care issue after having had a major injury without health insurance and now having good coverage.
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When you no longer have a choice to not join something like a health insurer or a union, something is very wrong. It's supposed to be a free country, and saying "Well you're free to just take your chances of dying of failure to afford surgery" is not an acceptable counter. When the alternatives are all made untenable in a practical form free choice and free markets become a sham.
Reply
Reply
The majority of idiots see the insurers as "saving" them from "the big bad pharma companies and overcharging doctors" by paying most of their cost as long as they maintain suitable employment and don't actually get sick.
Reply
Reply
Health insurance, at its very core, is a welfare system. Everyone else pays in whether or not they use it, in order to fund the people who use it. Including those who abuse the insurance system and only have their premiums increased slightly.
In Canada, it's worked into the taxes. Everyone pays in, and it goes to fund the system and you cannot be turned away for essential services. In this case, it means the welfare exists as a government system anyway.
Of course, most Americans hear things like "Communism" and get uptight, but if you try to have them describe the health insurance system, it works just the same way. Yet they think this is a good thing.
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