Republicans backing away from "death panels"?

[mattskramer]

Health insurance is not health care.

You are technically correct. Neither a government bureaucrat nor an insurance agent will be my doctor. In that sense, health insurance is not the same as health care. Yet, health insurance is a means by which people may receive help in paying for health care.

Rationing is not "done well" if you think you can trust government to do it.

The private sector rations care. The public sector rations care. Some people are in such poverty and have so few resources that they don't have a practical choice in which sector to trust.

 

[Revere]

The truly poor get Medicaid, and SCHIP (up to $88,000 in income in some states).

Markets allocate, they don't ration. Just because a market does not give you all the gifts you want, doesn't mean it isn't working.

 

[Revere]

Matter of fact, the dude who needed the transplant was on Medicaid.

How did that work out for him?

 

[mattskramer]

The truly poor get Medicaid, and SCHIP (up to $88,000 in income in some states).

Likewise, some people earn enough to be ineligible for Medicaid and DO NOT earn enough to afford Medicaid.

Markets allocate, they don't ration. Just because a market does not give you all the gifts you want, doesn't mean it isn't working.

I can easily say that just because government does not give someone all the gifts that he wants, doesn't mean it isn't working.

Health insurers do ration care. One example of such rationing occurs when the insurance company limits the doctors you may visit because they negotiate fees with those doctors. They will only pay for you to visit the ones they have negotiated the lowest fees with.

Health insurers deny services or reimbursements for services.

 

[The Infidel]

Matter of fact, the dude who needed the transplant was on Medicaid.

How did that work out for him?

 

[Revere]

What is the efficacy of government at making anyone equal to anyone else where anything is concerned?

 

[mattskramer]

Matter of fact, the dude who needed the transplant was on Medicaid.

How did that work out for him?

Of course it is not working out for him. Yet, Medicare/Medicaid is there for many others and such services often do mange to work out for the very poor and needy. It is better that it be there fir many than to not be there at all.

Anyway, I can find stories about people being poorly treated by private health insurance companies.

Insurer targeted HIV patients to drop coverage | Reuters

In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance.

Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis, revoked his policy. Mitchell was told that without further treatment his HIV would become full-blown AIDS within a year or two and he would most likely die within two years after that.

How did that work for him?

 

[mattskramer]

What is the efficacy of government at making anyone equal to anyone else where anything is concerned?

That question is irrelevant to the topic of the thread, but I will reply anyway.

I don't see government attempting to make people EQUAL. Nor do I believe that it can or should make anyone equal to anyone else.

 

[Revere]

Private health insurance is a contract. If the guy did not buy coverage for HIV, he does not get it.

 

[Revere]

What is the efficacy of government at making anyone equal to anyone else where anything is concerned?

That question is irrelevant to the topic of the thread, but I will reply anyway.

I don't see government attempting to make people EQUAL. Nor do I believe that it can or should make anyone equal to anyone else.

Then your utopia of everyone having insurance as good as anyone else's is false.

 

[mattskramer]

What is the efficacy of government at making anyone equal to anyone else where anything is concerned?

That question is irrelevant to the topic of the thread, but I will reply anyway.

I don't see government attempting to make people EQUAL. Nor do I believe that it can or should make anyone equal to anyone else.

Then your utopia of everyone having insurance as good as anyone else's is false.

Uh. Please direct me to the post in which I advocated that everyone have insurance as good as anyone else. Then you may apologize for attempting to put words in my mouth. I never advocated any such thing.

 

[Revere]

I'm not going to apologize. You're a redistributionist.

 

[mattskramer]

Private health insurance is a contract. If the guy did not buy coverage for HIV, he does not get it.

I doubt that you even read the article. Here is an update:

SC Judicial Department

CHIEF JUSTICE TOAL: In this case, a policyholder brought causes of action for breach of contract and bad faith rescission against his insurance company, and sought actual and punitive damages for the company’s termination of his health care insurance from original issuance on the grounds of a purported misrepresentation. The jury awarded the policyholder $36,000 in actual damages on the breach of contract claim, $150,000 in actual damages on the bad faith rescission claim, and $15 million in punitive damages deriving from the bad faith cause of action.

 

[Revere]

Then the contract law worked.

 

[Revere]

If Medicaid denies you a service, what is your legal recourse? Begging to the politboro?

 

[Revere]

Because, unlike private insurance, it's illegal to pay cash for a service Medicaid denies.

 

[mattskramer]

I'm not going to apologize. You're a redistributionist.

It would take class for one to admit when one is wrong. Anyway, I never advocated a utopia in which everyone has as the same quality of insurance.

I do believe in a certain degree of wealth redistribution.
I believe in a public safety net for the disparately poor and needy.
Yet, I do not advocate complete equal redistribution of wealth.

Are you a redistributionist? Do you think that there should not be any government aid to the poor whatsoever?

 

[Revere]

There are no "poor" in this country. The people the government calls "poor" are never happy with what is taken away from others and given to them.

 

[Revere]

The truly poor already get Medicaid, and SCHIP. In fact, in some states, you can have a family incomeof $88,000 and still qualify for SCCHIP.

I'd say that more than covers the "poor."

 

[mattskramer]

Then the contract law worked.

Luckily the patient found it within himself to stand up for his rights. Some people can't afford a lawyer, Some people are not so resourceful and astute but would accept what the private industry decided. Some victims of corrupt business practices fall through the cracks. In other words, he basically lucked out.