If we Socialize Medicine, can we get rid of Insurance Companies?

[tooAlive]

I was thinking about it this morning.

If the government is in the process of socializing medicine and making it available to everybody, wouldn't that eliminate the need for insurance companies?

I mean, why would there even be any? They don't provide any medical service. If anything they would only slow things down. And I'd also assume they'd artificially drive the cost of healthcare up, as they would essentially be making profits without offering any real value. And they do make quite a bit of profit.

Wouldn't this also make the cost of healthcare much cheaper?

I understand this idea is a bit radical, especially for a conservative like myself. But as a fiscal conservative I'm also against waste and inefficiency. Hence, medical insurance companies came to mind.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Sunshine]

I was thinking about it this morning.

If the government is in the process of socializing medicine and making it available to everybody, wouldn't that eliminate the need for insurance companies?

I mean, why would there even be any? They don't provide any medical service. If anything they would only slow things down. And I'd also assume they'd artificially drive the cost of healthcare up, as they would essentially be making profits without offering any real value. And they do make quite a bit of profit.

Wouldn't this also make the cost of healthcare much cheaper?

I understand this idea is a bit radical, especially for a conservative like myself. But as a fiscal conservative I'm also against waste and inefficiency. Hence, medical insurance companies came to mind.

What are your thoughts?

Insurace companies have already driven the cost of health care up. I recall the time when if you had an upper GI you had to go to the hospital to get it. Then reality hit.

 

[JakeStarkey]

ACA is the health insurance's industry to get it right. If it can't make the 80% requirement of dollars spent on care and delivery while trying to maintain the outlandish profit and dividend margins (making profit through denying coverage to the ill), then single payer for all (Medicare) will be the next step.

 

[JoeNormal]

I was thinking about it this morning.

If the government is in the process of socializing medicine and making it available to everybody, wouldn't that eliminate the need for insurance companies?

I mean, why would there even be any? They don't provide any medical service. If anything they would only slow things down. And I'd also assume they'd artificially drive the cost of healthcare up, as they would essentially be making profits without offering any real value. And they do make quite a bit of profit.

Wouldn't this also make the cost of healthcare much cheaper?

I understand this idea is a bit radical, especially for a conservative like myself. But as a fiscal conservative I'm also against waste and inefficiency. Hence, medical insurance companies came to mind.

What are your thoughts?

I think insurance companies would be completely redundant if socialized medicine were available. That's how countries provide a similar health care outcome as the US for a fraction of the cost.

 

[bucs90]

Government funded healthcare would indeed put the greedy, parasitic insurance companies out of business. The #1 goal of an insurance company is NOT to take care of you. It is to make profit. Their absolute goal is to get as much money from you as they can, and pay out as little as possible. Screw you over. Thats the nature of their existence. Thats it.

And hospitals have been using insured patients as a piggy bank to make up for the care they give uninsured ones. Procedures you dont need. Care you dont need. Thats why the medical field is dominated by drugs and procedures, and NOT diet and exercise. Diet and exercise aren't profitable. Drugs and procedures are.

I for one will be happy when the insurance industry is bankrupted.

 

[9thIDdoc]

Exactly. Insurance Co's are the problem.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

if we get rid of insurance companies.....can we get rid of government too.....?

 

[boedicca]

Oh sure, let's get rid of insurance companies because dealing with DMV-style health care government bureaucrats will be so much more enjoyable!

 

[boedicca]

Government funded healthcare would indeed put the greedy, parasitic insurance companies out of business. The #1 goal of an insurance company is NOT to take care of you. It is to make profit. Their absolute goal is to get as much money from you as they can, and pay out as little as possible. Screw you over. Thats the nature of their existence. Thats it.

And hospitals have been using insured patients as a piggy bank to make up for the care they give uninsured ones. Procedures you dont need. Care you dont need. Thats why the medical field is dominated by drugs and procedures, and NOT diet and exercise. Diet and exercise aren't profitable. Drugs and procedures are.

I for one will be happy when the insurance industry is bankrupted.

Which makes you a total idiot, but we already knew that.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The folks in countries with socialized health care live longer, more healthily, for less cost.

Fact.

 

[Dugdale_Jukes]

When America was at its best, fee taking scum in financial services, including insurance companies, were on very short leashes.

What happened is ReagaNUTs cut them loose into the legal wilderness created by fake liberal human potential enthusiasts. Anyone with sense could see as early as 1982 that kind of nonsense wouldn't end well.

Now look at the bitter harvest partisans on both sides have produced for the US.

 

[healthmyths]

I was thinking about it this morning.

If the government is in the process of socializing medicine and making it available to everybody, wouldn't that eliminate the need for insurance companies?

I mean, why would there even be any? They don't provide any medical service. If anything they would only slow things down. And I'd also assume they'd artificially drive the cost of healthcare up, as they would essentially be making profits without offering any real value. And they do make quite a bit of profit.

Wouldn't this also make the cost of healthcare much cheaper?

I understand this idea is a bit radical, especially for a conservative like myself. But as a fiscal conservative I'm also against waste and inefficiency. Hence, medical insurance companies came to mind.

What are your thoughts?

Why that's what Obama Prefers!!! Obama has said: "I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program."Obama's words exactly!!
which means that you and he ...
prefer to destroy the 1,300 health insurance companies
that pay $100 billion a YEAR in Federal/State/Local taxes AND local property taxes on their office buildings!
You and Obama prefer to put out of work the 400,000 people that work in the health insurance companies!"
YOU and Obama prefer to pay out over 99 weeks at $300/week -- $11.8 billion in unemployment benefits.
You and Obama prefer to make up out of YOUR tax payments
400,000 employees at $40,000/year SS/Medicare payments of @15.3% paid by employer/employee or $2.4 billion a year paid into Federal govt.

All in in you and Obama prefer that local property taxes will increase because non-profits i.e. govt. don't pay property taxes!

All in all you and Obama prefer to destroy federal tax on dividends paid out to those evil money grubbing pension funds, 401Ks,etc. based on the reality that
the AVERAGE insurance company's net profit BEFORE TAXES is 4.6%?

You are in favor OF THAT but you won't tax LAWYERS 10% of their $200 billion a year income to be used to pay the premium on the truly 4 million uninsured..
(AGAIN you don't seem to handle simple math:
10 million Obama counts as "uninsured" NOT CITIZENS! 14 million he counts as uninsured. Covered already by Medicaid and the biggest phoniest lie
18 million people who pay out of their OwN pocket annually less then $1,000 for health services refuse employer insurance and there fore counted as "uninsured" falsely!
These 18 million are under 34 and make over $50K and they are NOT happy about buying health insurance!
That leaves 4 million truly uninsured that every time they go to the hospital all they need to is show they are registered as a member of the Uninsured Health Insurance Co.!
Hospitals send claims and not allowed to charge then Medicare/insurance companies sometimes 6,000% markups because of EMTALA!!!

But you want the ambulance chasing lawyers to continue putting $850 billion a year in defensive medicine.. (BY FAR the biggest cost driver in insurance premiums/Medicare)
all because the experts i.e. physicians FEAR BEING SUED!
And your solution is to put insurance companies out of business.. causing $100 billion a year in lost tax revenue, putting 400,000 people out of work who'll collect $11 billion?

That's your solution???

Obama also said he wants companies to go bankrupt!!!
"if somebody wants to build coal utility plant it’s just that it will bankrupt them,![/I][/B][/COLOR]"
Why would ANY president want any business to go bankrupt?

And he went on to say: “Under my plan....electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."
Why would ANY president want electricity rates to skyrocket???

D) Obama said "I'd like higher gas prices.."
WHAT? A president WANTS YOU to pay HIGHER gas prices?

I mean seriously... YOU want health insurance companies to go out of business and in doing so stop paying $100 billion in state taxes, federal taxes, property taxes, sales and use taxes, payroll taxes, workers compensation taxes and unemployment taxes.?

See I don't think YOU much less Obama KNOW HOW MUCH in TAXES businesses pay!

 

[Truthmatters]

there are other typess of insurance to sell.


are these gods of the right not smart enough to adapt to a changing market?

 

[Truthmatters]

They cant handle the changes then they will fall by the wayside from their own failure to adapt huh.


why is it some of you fear more for these Businesses than you do for poor people?

 

[Truthmatters]

can you say sociopath?

 

[Vandalshandle]

Well, although HMO and health insurance companies would not be needed if we had universal health care, the public would insist that they remain, and contract with the government to provide care, just like they do with Medicare Advantage plans, which is a private alternative to Medicare. This is the reason that my stock in health care companies has almost doubled in value since 2008, and why I have no intention of getting rid of it.

 

[healthmyths]

I was thinking about it this morning.

If the government is in the process of socializing medicine and making it available to everybody, wouldn't that eliminate the need for insurance companies?

I mean, why would there even be any? They don't provide any medical service. If anything they would only slow things down. And I'd also assume they'd artificially drive the cost of healthcare up, as they would essentially be making profits without offering any real value. And they do make quite a bit of profit.

Wouldn't this also make the cost of healthcare much cheaper?

I understand this idea is a bit radical, especially for a conservative like myself. But as a fiscal conservative I'm also against waste and inefficiency. Hence, medical insurance companies came to mind.

What are your thoughts?

Insurace companies have already driven the cost of health care up. I recall the time when if you had an upper GI you had to go to the hospital to get it. Then reality hit.

ARE YOU a F...king IDIOT????
Does the insurance company actually do the GI???
Or you f...king idiot does the HOSPITAL do it and THEN send the claim of service to the insurance company?

God... you people are so f...king stupid!

How about this... does the insurance company pay the hospital when the HOSPITAL charges Medicare 6,000% more then the cost of performing the service?

HELL no! you dummy!
But what does happen is the HOSPITAL because of EMTALA Please use the internet LOOK IT UP !
Pads the service costs and PASSES them on to Medicare or the insurance companies... AND BoTH PAY!

LOOK HERE is an actual report from MEDICARE stating:

I have access to a database of 6,000 hospitals in the USA specifically to what they charged Medicare and what the hospital's cost to perform the services.

In 2009 the University Community Hospital in Tampa sent Medicare 2,110 claims for CAT scan no contrast.
Each claim averaged: $2,635 which is what the hospital billed Medicare...
The hospital's ACTUAL COSTS to perform the CAT SCAN was $43 a mark up 6,127.91%

I am NOT MAKING THIS UP... THESE ARE THE FACTS!

 

[JakeStarkey]

Then let the government allow the companies to COMPETE for its single payer payment.

Prices will drop dramatically.

 

[tooAlive]

Why that's what Obama Prefers!!! Obama has said: "I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program."Obama's words exactly!!
which means that you and he ...
prefer to destroy the 1,300 health insurance companies
that pay $100 billion a YEAR in Federal/State/Local taxes AND local property taxes on their office buildings!

Well, under my taxation plan, the Fair Tax (H.R. 25), there would no longer be any income or property taxes collected by the government.

I doubt Obama would go for my tax plan though.

And In regards to the jobs that would be lost; that's a fair point. I thought of that as well. Although I don't buy the claim that they'd all go on unemployment. Most (if not all) those insurance workers are making much, much more than they'd make on welfare.

I think it would be beneath them to start living off the government dole. I know I sure wouldn't.

 

[Dugdale_Jukes]

People would NOT deal with insurance companies if they didn't have to.

Want proof: Obamacare. The whole reason for that is insurance companies.

What tickles me is it took a Republican judge, John Roberts, to make it stick. All the sturm und drang of the public debates and the private sales and it came down to one vote, the vote of one of the filthiest scum on the face of the earth. It'd be worth a lot to know Roberts' thoughts when Kennedy refused to buy in. That made it up to Roberts. I am laughing out loud that lowlife cocksucker had to sacrifice his judicial reputation on the altar of avarice - giving insurance companies license to steal, instead of voting the constitution.