No - none of it matters if health care costs aren't controlled. Medicare and Medicaid's problem is the same as private health insurance - spiraling costs. Cutting back entitlements doesn't do anything to stop health care costs that someone has to pay for. Whether we're taxed to pay for insurance or we pay it out of our pockets, ultimately it's the same thing - no one outside of the very wealthy will be able to afford it soon. Every year, fewer people can afford it. Every year, fewer companies offer it. If costs really are uncontrollable due to new research and technologies, then you have to ask: what's the point of everyone's insurance paying for research into new technologies that no one will be able to use?
It's bad in other markets too. It's why we don't privatize fire and police services, for example. Generally, it depends if we want a particular industry driven by profit or by something else.
You can’t stop technology from advancing and you don’t want to stop it, but that evolution and extra cost is not directly tied to the cost of a basic health care plan. In a basic, universal, health care plan a government makes decisions about what is to be covered and what isn’t, and note that whatever isn’t covered by the government can be covered by private insurance. The government’s job is not to provide the exotic, high end, services. Its job is to provide good, basic, health care. If someone invented a pill that was guaranteed to extend someone’s life one year but it cost $10 million per pill, for example, then that would very likely be too expensive and would not be included as part of the government’s basic health care plan. This wouldn’t stop someone from buying the pill on their own, of course, or perhaps there might be a private insurance plan that would cover it, so it would still be available. There is private insurance here in Canada too, btw, and it covers some options that aren’t covered by AHCIP and travel insurance, because our Alberta health insurance only provides limited coverage outside of Canada and I believe other provinces provide no coverage outside of Canada at all. Here is an example of the kind of private supplementary health care insurance that’s available in Canada. https://www.ab.bluecross.ca/index.html
That's interesting. I wonder if Americans would be willing to accept that health care is not going to cover everything, including the most exotic treatments that can save your life.
Well a new cancer drug may initially be ridiculously expensive, but over time it should get cheaper. I don't think anyone wants to stop technological progress, even if it's really expensive to use.
That’s a very strange statement. No system insures everything, public or private. Maybe you didn’t word that properly? What were you trying to say?
Would not happen. Private industry would "rise up" and do nothing more than maximize their own profit at everyone else's expense. Private industry would explode the cost of healthcare off the charts if completely left to their own devices. This so-called "libertarian's wet dream" would be a nightmare for the nation.
That's certainly true - but if we're always developing more and more expensive treatments, then we're left with the same problem: what's the point of developing the treatments if no one can afford insurance? Right now, it makes sense to most people because about 70-80% of the country is still insured. What happens when that number drops to 50%? or 30%?
"If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," --South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint Health reform foes plan Obama's 'Waterloo'
Not even private health insurance covers everything. Most private health insurance of any type does not cover everything. Everything that is not covered is laid out in a long list of disclaimers. This is true for any insurance policy, whether it is medical, homeowner, rental, auto, etc. All my private insurnace policies tell me more about the disclaimers than what is actually insured.
I said a couple of months ago that Obama would take a lot of political damage over health care. Some here disagreed since the majority of Americans said they wanted reform. If something is passed and signed, those on the right and/or left who don't like it will punish Obama. If nothing is passed, Jim DeMint could be right and the political wind could be knocked out of the administration. Obama's 1st term legacy is on the line with this.
LMFAO if I wasn't too busy crying. How about the most banal treatments? My insurance doesn't pay for a freaking walking boot when I break my ankle in half and have a plate and eleven screws installed in my leg -- even after I max out at a $5,000 cast cost to myself. USA! USA! Here's the fact, Mr. Clutch: Our "greatest system in the world" ****ING SUCKS. Sure, rich people will always be able to get the care they want, but working people? People who depend on insurance from their employers? Well, we're screwed again. As usual. I am on a PPO from Humana. It might as well be a Gold Star coupon book.
If by "cast" you really mean your black tar heroin habit, that would fit some of the arguments against single payer medical coverage I've heard.
It is sad that some Republcans could give a crap about people and their health care, they just want to stay in power. What made me realize that all the GOPers voting against health care are not just that unaware of the plight of the average health care consumer was when Bill Clinton said that Bob Dole was about to support Hillary Care when GOP strategists convinced him that if it passed the GOP would be toast for a generation. Sadly he caved which led to Dubya and pissing away more in Iraq totally full blown national health care would cost.
I agree that some of the tax cuts could be rolled back to pay for the start up costs for a health care system. So could all of the money that we give to Israel every year, and the billion dollars for AIDS prevention in Africa. We need to take care of things here before we worry about the rest of the world. I have compassion for those who cannot afford insurance, like a former Chapter 7 client that had to choose between health insurance or apartment rent. I have little compassion for people like a buddy of mine who choose not to buy insurance. "I'm young. Chances are that I will not become seriously ill. I'll take my chances and spend the money on fun stuff."
If the U.S. eliminated foreign aid to Israel and all money for aids prevention in Africa, how much of a dent would that make in $1 trillion?
Not that much all those add up to be maybe 10-20 billion a year if that. It still all come back to cost of medical care, you take care of cost, everythign else will fall in line.
It adds up to ~$3-4 billion/year. Cost is everything. I think Obama and healthcare reform are in big trouble. If he manages to get it back on track and passed later this year, give him a wizard's hat. I don't see it happening. Without slowing the growth of costs, it's blows up the primary rationale for reform. Maybe a watered down version will pass and Obama will say, "some progress is better than no progress".
I hope so because there are good ideas outside of the public option in the bill that most people agree on.
