I just find it hilarious that we're looking to the government to fix inefficiencies.

If not the elected officials that the majority of the population managed to place there to speak on their behalf, then who?

Who do you propose the population look to to fix health care inefficiencies?

The Private Health Sector? they are just a bunch of greedy money-sucking b*****d whose best interest is lining their pockets with cash while people with legitimate health issues are passed over because they are a 'poor investment'...

I don't wish ill will towards anyone, but just once I would like to be a fly on the wall if you were ever faced with a 180 degree scenario of your current life...

That's one of your problems Josh. You make comments like this on things you don't understand or have any real life experience with.

As one example, you need to understand how efficient Medicare is. It's administered excellently and more efficiently than the healthcare insurance companies administer their own plans.

The problem is not with Government administration, it's with the cost of healthcare...same problems the insurance companies have and the Government runs it with much less administrative costs.

Social Security and the VA are extremely well run. Not perfect of course but considering the scope of the operation it's administered extremely well.

That is the job of the elected officials. It is not the job of the elected officials, however, to steal money from some to give to others.

The government. But instead of looking to buy everyone health insurance, we should look at why the problem exists. And the problem exists because government has intervened. They should make it so that companies can compete across state lines, along with many other proposals that will fix laws that the government made in the past that created this mess in the first place.

http://www.plime.com/l/135106/1/

When you're making a very little profit margin, sometimes you can't give out your product to everyone.

I may be 21, but that doesn't mean I have no real life experience. I may not have gone through a bankruptcy or experienced high emergency bills. But I still see how the government works, and I know that this is not the answer.

Well, when you have taxpayer's money at will, then of course you're going to be able to run an efficient operation. Medicare and Medicaid pay doctors less than private insurance companies do. Doctors have tons of medical school bills to pay off and years schooling. To be paid less by the government is not something that is feasible for doctors if everyone starts to use it. The medical field is decreasing heavily because of malpractice insurance problems (costing upwards of $100,000/year) and long and costly medical schools. We need to fix the core issues before we work on the other issues.

Social security will go bankrupt in several years. That's not what I would consider efficient.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are two perfect examples of why the government should not be involved in running our health care.

Document this, please.

The problem exists because The Private Health Insurance sector decides WHO to insure by making premiums unaffordable to those in need of care. The Government intervenes to offer a more affordable CHOICE to those uninsured. Because, really NO ONE should be WITHOUT HEALTH CARE, NO ONE...

However meek the profit they are making, they are still making a profit and that is a profit they are making ON PEOPLES LIVES AND MISFORTUNES!

Funny, your other suggestions don't seem to be the answer either to the majority of the population that is unlike you...

The above quoted for posterity...

Malpractice insurance is there for a reason. And really... if there is an overabundance of malpractice then the doctors in question should really stop practicing medicine.



According to whom? Your right-wing sources? As long as generations upon generations of working class Americans pay their Social Security Taxes, I don't see how this is going bankrupt

Apples and Oranges...

I find it odd that it is assumed that the private sector is somehow inherently more efficient than anything anyone else could possibly do, especially after all the empirical evidence to the contrary.

I find it hilarious that the US spends so much on healthcare, yet achieves so little. Look at all the countries that have universal health care and you see that ALL of them spend less and get more out of it.

"* Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams."

I can't even FIND a Medicare doctor within a 40 minute drive of my house in a suburban area of Los Angeles!

I did go to a chiropractor who charged my visits to Medicare, but Medicare won't pay him because I wasn't referred from a medical doctor, I had come in with a crick in my neck and he treated it thoroughly!

I got paperwork on all the visits that Medicare wasn't paying the doctor for. 15 large envelopes and 22 smaller ones ALL ON THE SAME DAY! All the same report, for different days that I saw the chiro. The large envelopes cost $1.01 each, and the smaller ones $0.43. They could have sent all the paperwork to me in one large envelope for $1.01! So stoopid...

I go to the VA for my medical care since Medicare does nothing for me... I'm VERY fortunate!

If the Social Security system would raise the limit to $200,000 or even $150,000, it would fund itself for many more years as well as cover people whose retirement plans won't support them in their infirmity.

If the insurance industry doesn't have a large profit margin, that is another sign that they are "not doing it right"!

Where DOES the $900 a month COBRA money go?

Should hospitals lower their rates? Although health insurance companies have been subsidizing hospitals for years now. A non-paying poor person comes in and gets care, or someone gets care at a reduced rate. The cost then gets passed on to an insured person, as the costs will be covered - by the insurance company.

Perhaps a government run program will stop that practice. Everyone gets the same care for "no" price, but we all pay taxes or a monthly fee. That is a little more fair all the way around...

The mother of a friend pays the $900 a month COBRA. She says she would be GLAD to 'subsidize' 2 or 3 other people at $100 a month as well as pay $100 a month for herself - she would STILL be saving money!

i have to go to bat for josh on this one,

take a look at our national debt since the new adminstration took over.

how efficient do you think the government is?

and they havent even started to spend money on our "fabulous new health care system" yet

btw, the government will not run without your dollars, every day they take a little more. how long will it be before they take all of it, and they make ALL your choices for you?

Edited to add DerAlt's actual figures:

For a non existent war THAT KILLS PEOPLE

Vs.

$100 Billion for Universal Health Care THAT SAVES THEM

I can see where you get the inefficiencies...

Chalk it up to legislation, blasphemous stone-walling, outright alarmist stalling and blatant ignorance of the world.

If they take it where it counts to make sure the nation runs smoothly with no complaints, I don't see anything wrong with it...

But I don't see this happening (the no complaints part) because somewhere there will be someone who isn't happy about the way things are done, but this person will be too reactive to do anything about it...

If you're speaking of Bush's Iraq war, the one we were lied into starting, the cost now has escalated to $1.3 TRILLION.

Total for Iraq and Afghanistan is $1.6 trillion.



Most of that off the books and added to the National debt by the last administration.

Thanks for correcting me... I knew it was more, I just didn't have the figure handy...

:P

If they take it where it counts to make sure the nation runs smoothly with no complaints, I don't see anything wrong with it...




its sad to know you would so easily give up the freedoms that soldiers have fought and died for.
good luck with your future, ker0bo

I have only one more thing to say to you:

AL.AR.MIST

Ok 2 things...

Considering WHERE I have been in MY life... I take that as a complement...

for everyone who wants to bash all health insurance companies, or the "Private Health Sector"...

in my state, the largest health insurance provider is not-for-profit...

what does that mean?

all of the revenue is placed into a reserve fund, that is held to pay out any outstanding claims, should something catastrophic happen... no one is lining their pockets at that compnay... trust me.

so no, not all private sector health insurance companies are billionaires...