youtube.com — Welcome to the American health insurance industry. Instead of helping policyholders attain the health security they need for their families, big insurance companies get rich by denying coverage to patients. Now they’re sending lobbyists to Washington, DC to twist the arms of lawmakers to oppose reform of the status quo.
Aug 6, 2009 View in Crawl 4
vaultAug 7, 2009
There cannot ever be a truly free market for health care because you cannot comparison shop when you're unconscious on the way to the hospital. There is no consumer choice about whether to undergo a life or death procedure. You also can't "try out" most medical expenses beforehand like you can with other products of similar cost like new cars. You also can't plan ahead and research because your need to purchase a medical product or service may come out of nowhere, and you may have no choice about it. And consumers don't make the choice about buying some of the products...a doctor may not prescribe the cheaper drug because it doesn't work as well (so it's unlike a lawnmower where a cheap one still ends up cutting the lawn).Secondly, given the very high barrier to entry for the industry that creates medical devices and products, there is a small number of players who don't have any incentive to lower prices because consumers often do not have a choice about whether to use the product or not. This isn't like buying potato chips where you can say "nah I really don't want that brand of chips," this can often be..."only one or two companies make this, and if I don't use it, I'll die."The problem with your idea is that insurance companies don't want to compete over the expensive patients. They want healthy people who are going to cost the least. It is in their best financial interest to charge the most and pay the least. There has to be a safety net for the expensive patients because in an unregulated truly free market, otherwise they go to the ER for care, they don't pay, the hospital writes off the debt, and the cost gets passed on in the form of higher premiums for the insured. A plan that only covered hospital visits would be idiotic because then people would just go to the ER when they don't have a real emergency- kind of like what happens now, except worse. That would needlessly clog up even more ER's across the country for non-emergency issues.The free market cannot solve the healthcare crisis. It can give consumers the best results in a lot of other industries, but not in this unique case.
smacksawAug 7, 2009
As a libertarian, let me give some advice to the Republicans out there who are against this: Stop being intellectually dishonest.Look, I have my ideology and you have yours. Do I want federalism? No. But the numbers don't lie. Watch this video. The numbers are clear. The stories are clear. It's inexcusable.We are not anarchists in the USA. Not providing health care is anarchy. It is disorder. Look, if the free market could do better, it would have done so already. Clearly, the profit motive is not compatible with providing health care to the people who pay the profits. Corporatism is a problem that isn't going to go away by more free-market medicine. More regulation, a parallel system run by gov't, who knows? But this is why the Democrats want to bring you to the table. I don't want federal health care. But I could be happy with it run at the state level like we have in Canada where it's run by the provinces. We need local control.Come to the table armed with the facts that you are denying. Want profit? Fine, propose a cap. Think private insurance works? Regulate it and demand a two-tier system where those who pay more get faster service. If you don't want to wait, make it so that you get to jump the queue if you pay. I am not sure any of this is off the table right now. But you don't know, because all you do is scream and holler at Town Hall meetings and call Obama a Nazi.You don't lose if you participate in the process. You lose if you DO NOT participate. You all worked your butts off to get out the vote to stop Obama. Well, you had a record turnout, but you came up short. Still, Obama looks at your numbers and is willing to work with you. Now you won't do it? That's as stupid as not exercising your civic duty to vote. Grow up and do your part to fix this problem. If you love your country, have something intelligent to say about it. Have something intellectually honest to say.
oldhickAug 7, 2009
You mean the bill championed by Ted Kennedy and the leading Liberal law makers of the time? HMO's were the first round of the Democrats health care plan. I'm guessing you're hoping this time around they get it better eh?"As the author of the first HMO bill ever to pass the Senate, I find this spreading support for HMOs truly gratifying. Just a few years ago, proponents of health maintenance organizations faced bitter opposition from organized medicine. And just a few years ago, congressional advocates of HMOs faced an administration which was long on HMO rhetoric, but very short on action." - Ted Kennedy March 3rd, 1978.
bohicatwentytwoAug 7, 2009
There a difference between reforming the status quo and destroying the status quo. That's why the Obama/Joker anarchist analogy works.
Closed AccountAug 7, 2009
Wrenching stories of nonpayment by United Health Care Group, but the video is short on details about actual terms of coverage. The narration implies that payment was unfairly denied and the health care providers are getting rich. All of that said the stories are compelling, and it is hard not to be moved to do something.
purrsuedeAug 9, 2009
Only works in your twisted sense of logic, frankly....