Thomas J. Gordon

Health Care: Public vs. Private and the Impact on Health Plan Stocks

CapNgain, Your well tuned free market sensibilities are ahead of us. I think all Shotei is trying to say is what is the sense of the gov't handling the health care insurance market and everyone who works for United Health Care and other private insurers gets laid off. But you are right, the gov't would use more people to do the same work so net/net, more people would be employed. At some stage the economy totters into insolvency as the healthy sectors of the economy can no longer support those sectors run by the gov't. In order for an industry to be subsidized, the heatlhy parts of the economy must provide the resources.

Health Care: Public vs. Private and the Impact on Health Plan Stocks

Michael, How come your picture doesn't have "Contributor" on it? You are a contibutor. What do you think of my AMA right to licence medical schools suggestion? When you let the AMA license medical schools you are asking them do they want to make more money or less money. Why shouldn't Colorado State and San Diego State have their own medical schools? More doctors equal lower costs and there are lots of people who want to be doctors, even if it doesn't pay as much as it does now. It would take years to get this in place and get it going but I think it's a long term answer to costs.

Health Care: Public vs. Private and the Impact on Health Plan Stocks

Shontei: Good point, a lot of people are employed by private health insurance now.

General thought: I write these articles in a vacumn (little input from others) and sometimes after I'm done I remember something. Educatioin (post secondary and even k-12) is a place where we have had ongoing competition between the public and private sectors for 100's of years. I think 80% plus children attend k-12 public schools so that's close to the gov't taking it over. I would argue that private schools must really have something going for them to be able to compete against their low priced public competitors. Also, many of the players in the education space are not for profit, the Catholic church, protestant churches, wealthy alumni donors that don't have a profit motive but want to be involved in education for other reasons.