And exactly what are your objections to the insurance companies?
I know a little bit about insurance companies. For a very brief time in my life I sold insurance for two major, well-known companies. I went to the sales school that each of the companies send their new providers to and I sold some policies for both of the companies. I was not a happy insurance sales employee. I found their sales tactics to be legal and ethical, but just barely so. I felt like a real creep trying to push off the policies onto people knowing full well that should there be a claim against the policy the insurance company would do all they could do to deny the claim, or a good portion of it. So, I am not a big fan of insurance companies. I detest paying a premium every month and then having to pay a co-pay charge when you have very seldom even used the policy. I hate the money you have to pay out of your pocket before the insurance companies will even begin to pay. They call it a deductible. I call it theft and borderline fraud. So, please don't get the idea I am a big fan of insurance companies. I have go-rounds with my own company from time to time and the person who is my insurance salesman and policy servicer is a friend I know well. I think there should be some overhaul of the insurance companies. It is widely known that hospitals and doctors charge a certain fee for the services of people that have insurance and higher fees for people who don't have insurance. Insurance companies will only pay so much for a particular medical service and the health care providers know it. What I would like to see is lower cost for health care, the end to co-pays and deductibles, and a requirement that everybody be able to obtain affordable health care, privately, on their own. You don't need the Federal government to manage health care. You need the Federal government to put some controls on the insurance companies by passing consumer friendly insurance laws. After that point, the government needs to get out of the way and let the system run itself. There will always be people who can't afford insurance or for some reason do not have health insurance. It's a sad part of life but the Constitution does not provide for individual health care or insurance. The Constitution is not a "Living Document" as some would like for you to believe. It spells things out very clearly and in most cases leaves little to figure out. The government needs to follow it and not the desires of liberal minded individuals.
" You need the Federal government to put some controls on the insurance companies by passing consumer friendly insurance laws. "
How about a few suggestions.
BTW, not to change the point of this thread, I really like the comment " The Constitution is not a "Living Document" as some would like for you to believe. "
The following are from a speech by John Goodman, President of the Center for Policy Analysis.
a. Liberate patients by designating what they can pay for with the money, and then giving them more control over the money, at least one-third of their Medicare dollars. People with health savings accounts managing their own money make radically different choices: they are more prudent and economical.
b. Doctors currently have no ability to re-price or re-package their services that way every other professional does. Medicare dictates what it pays for and what it wont pay for, and the final price. Because of this there are no telephone consultations paid for, and the same for e-mails, normal in every other profession.
Most doctors dont digitize records, thus they cannot use software that allows electronic prescription, and make it easier to detect drug interactions or dosage mistakes. Again, Medicare doesnt pay for it.
Another free market idea aimed at better quality is have warranties for surgery as we do for cars. 17% of Medicare patients who enter a hospital re-enter within 30 days because of a problem connected to the original surgery. The result is that a hospital makes money on its mistakes!
If consumers save and spend their own money, and doctors are allowed to act like entrepreneurs, health care can be prevented from rising faster than our incomes.
The free market examples in health care:
a. Cosmetic surgery behaves like a real market. It is not covered by insurance, consumers compare prices and services, and doctors act as entrepreneurs. Over the last 15 years, the real price of cosmetic surgery has gone down, even though the number of people getting cosmetic surgery five- or six-fold.
b. In Dallas, a health care provider has two million customers who pay a small fee each month for the ability to talk to a doctor on the telephone. Patients must have an electronic medical record, so that whichever doctor answers the phone can view his medical records. The company is growing due to the fact that it provides a service the traditional health care system doesnt provide.
c. Walk-in clinics are growing around the country, where a registered nurse sits at a computer, the patient describes symptoms, the nurse types it in and follows a computerized protocol, the nurse can prescribe electronically, and the patient sees the price in advance.
d. Concierge doctors, doctors who dont want to deal with third party insurers. In Dallas, these doctors charge $40 per employee per month, give telephone and e-mail access, and keep electronic medical records.
e. Medical tourism: hospitals in India, Singapore and Thailand are competing worldwide for patients. They have lower costs, and high quality, with doctors board-certified in the United States, and publicize their error rates, mortality rates, infection rates, etc.
