JCC

Pundits Are Wrong: Healthcare Reform Will Increase Profits

Guitanguran - I agree with you that free markets might work in healthcare, but not under the current situations. For a free market to work, you would need to get rid of the FDA and all of the regulation. Let the buyer beware and let capitalism do it's thing!! If someone can't afford care they pay the price. If a treatment fails, they buyer loses it all.

The problem is that this will never occur, and furthermore our moral constraints would never allow us to go to this extreme.

Competition on healthcare in the USA is a non-achievable pipedream.


On Sep 18 01:19 PM Guitanguran wrote:

> two things:
>
> Free markets can work in healthcare. Consider Lasik surgery. As out
> of pocket expense, the consumer (patient) has to choose wisely. The
> result is that technology, efficacy, and choices have gone up, and
> prices have gone down. Why? Because the person getting the procedure
> has to pay for it. And, the person providing the procedure has to
> compete with other providers.
>
> Why not take the tax break now given to employers on health insurance,
> have them pay the employees the equivalent difference of healthcare
> cost to them as salary, give the tax break to the employee, and open
> up insurance options across the country? Indigents, widows, and orphans
> can be taken care of by tax credits on 'pro-bono' care. Portability
> and pre-existing issues could be dealt with by letting the individual
> buy and keep their policy forever if they like.

Pundits Are Wrong: Healthcare Reform Will Increase Profits

OK Wisdom - In the US the government currently pays ~50% of healthcare costs. Insurance companies pay 35%. The rest is out of pocket. Our regulations are onerous and certainly support high profit for healthcare providers.

So in case you didn't notice, we already have a quasi-socialist system without competition and rising prices of ~10% per year. What makes you think that this is sustainable? What makes you think that the current US system is capitalist? Our healthcare results are comparatively inferior to countries!

So what are you defending, except for an unsustainable system that does not provide adequate care and will strangle the USA with rising costs!!


On Sep 17 07:00 PM Wisdom vs. Information wrote:

> check the scoreboard: european standard of living has steadily been
> falling behind the US since we pulled the defense nurse bottle away
> and is now 30% lower; japan has been in recession since 1990, same
> time frame. what do you socialist not get about 'does not work'?
> you have the evidence in your face and you just keep plowing along
> with your head in sand, loving the taste of dirt
>
> if socialized medicine is so great, why can't euro and japanese corps
> compete with US corps? not only is your theory ridiculous on its
> face, evidence directly contradicts you. embarrassing

Obama's Healthcare Pitch: Purposefully Confusing?

I couldn't agree more - Many are great critics, but could not fix anything. We have to fix this one. Currently 45% of medical costs are paid by the government and 35% by insurance. The rest is out of pocket. The inflation rate in our current system will increase the costs to 50% of the economy in the not too distant future.

The current system is a recipe for economic disaster. So to all of you critics, stop yelling, whining and complaining - and start coming up with meaningful suggestions.

Health Care Bill: Prescription for Disaster

There is a lot of self serving drivel about healthcare. For some reason, most of you don't seem to understand that something has to be done, or in the not too distant future we will drown in healthcare costs. Today in the US health insurance pays 35% of healthcare costs, while the government pays 45%. The rest is out of pocket.

I have a radical plan that hasn't got a snowballs chance in hell of being implemented - Introduce competition among pharmaceutical companies, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. Current regulations prevent competition.

Recognizing the impossibioity of such a plan, we have no choice but to implement a change based upon government and regulation, and shared costs. I pray that out of the current effort some improvement will occur.

For those who want to leave it alone, the current rate of healthcare inflation is on track to bankupt the USA, and with the rate of inflation, healthcare will soon be 50% or more of the economy. When that happens the whole economy will collapse.

Wal-Mart Finally Succumbs to Government Pressure on Employer Mandated Health Coverage

Having close relatives working for Walmart, I was amazed to see that Walmart's health care coverage, over a period of several years, surpassed most S&P 500 companies from a standpoint of cost and coverage. As you know, Walmart has been blasted for years about health care coverage.

The point is that contrary to popular belief, Walmart has for some years been a leader in supplying healthcare coverage. Walmart's support of the Obama propsal is not surprising, because they are already complying and adoption of the new plan would level the playing field, in that other companies would also have to supply equivalent coverage for their employees.

This article appears to be telling a story to support a point of view. The problem is that the facts do not support the story.