Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Public House › Republicans have to stop lying to Americans about health care insurance.
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Billy_T.
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March 19, 2017 at 10:27 pm #66487Billy_TParticipant
And the Dems have to stop letting them.
I’m sick to death of all of this talk about “the free market” and “competition” and if we only set private, for-profit insurance companies free from all regulations, a thousand flowers will bloom. If we only let them “compete” for customers, premiums will go down, everyone will be covered, and consumers will get what they want.
Bullshit. In reality, no “free market” solution can ever, ever work when it comes to health care insurance. It’s mathematically, actuarially, and logically impossible. Why? For obvious reasons. Chief among them being this: The interests of a for-profit, private insurance company are in direct conflict with the interest of anyone who is sick, or hurt, or needs continuous care. If the private, health insurance company pays for the patient’s health care, it loses money. It only makes money when it doesn’t. It’s not the same thing as selling an Iphone. It’s not the same thing as selling a TV. Insurance companies can’t engage in some price war with their competitors, increase coverage, lower deductibles, cover everyone and still stay alive. Period.
Beyond that, all of this neoclassical, fresh water garbage being spewed by Mulvaney and (Ayn) Rand Paul about markets and getting the government out of the way conveniently forgets a few rather important matters. Especially these:
1. The government already covers the indigent.
2. The government already covers the elderly.(splitting this into two parts to make it easier to read, etc.)
March 19, 2017 at 10:33 pm #66488Billy_TParticipantThat means the government paves the way for the private sector to cherry pick the best possible customers and the private sector STILL won’t or can’t cover everyone. Listening to wingnut reps and pundits and their Ayn Rand fantasies, one would think that prior to government picking up the slack for the indigent and the elderly, every American had amazing health care, cuz all the insurance companies were dying to cover the people who can’t afford to pay them, and the people who require the most care.
Actually, the poor just died before programs like Medicaid, and the elderly just died before Medicare. Less than half of all seniors had insurance prior to the latter, for instance, cuz for-profit insurance companies lose huge amounts of money covering seniors.
The only way out of this mess is to go full on Single Payer, Medicare for All. It’s the only possible way to lower premiums, reduce or eliminate deductibles, and cover everyone. Medicare currently operates with an overhead of just 1.8% for its own programs, and 6.8% when it administers the privatized parts. For-profit companies can’t come close to that. They’re typically in the 30% in overhead alone, not to mention profits. It’s beyond self-evident that we need to go Medicare for All without any privatization.
Time for America to grow the fuck up and end its childish, dangerous, massively destructive fixation on the supposed glories of the “free market.” That ideology is literally killing us.
March 19, 2017 at 10:41 pm #66491Billy_TParticipantA sidebar:
I recently rewatched the Lonesome Dove series, and aside from enjoying it for its own sake, it made me think about another way to fix our health care system. America used to hire doctors and nurses via towns. Towns chipped in and paid their salaries. Patients didn’t pay doctors when they got sick. The entire town already had that covered.
So, in addition to going Medicare for All, with zero privatization, we need to have free clinics, hospitals, GPs in every community, paid for by that community, with no fees when people utilize their services. All the basics should be covered. Perhaps have the Medicare for All kick in when “specialists” are needed, or longer term care. But every single American, with no exceptions, should be able to walk into a regular doctor’s office, a hospital (not just the Emergency Center), a clinic, and get prepaid care, via taxes, simply by being a citizen.
That’s the humane way to do things. That’s the moral and ethical way to treat our fellow human beings.
March 20, 2017 at 7:40 am #66501
wvParticipantI wonder if its possible to ‘go too far’ with the American public. I dunno.
Its possible the Reps are lying too much now.Just depends how brain-damaged the public really is, due to lifetimes of
corporate-propoganda.w
vMarch 20, 2017 at 8:26 am #66502Billy_TParticipantI wonder if its possible to ‘go too far’ with the American public. I dunno.
Its possible the Reps are lying too much now.Just depends how brain-damaged the public really is, due to lifetimes of
corporate-propoganda.w
vGood point. I think they may have. It’s actually kind of shocking to me that the narrative has changed so much on health care. It seems even Trump voters understand the GOP is trying to screw them. Bernie’s town hall in West Virginia recently was a good indication.
Maybe they understand they can’t shop for the best “deal” on this, like they can, again, with an Iphone. It’s not, “Here’s my $700 dollars, now hand me that phone.” It’s “You received my $700 premium, please honor the agreement and pay $200K to the hospital for my heart bypass.”
The so-called “free market” has absolutely nothing to do with any of this, nor can it. If corporations had Randian “freedom” to do as they pleased, they wouldn’t pay that claim. They’d do whatever they could to get out of paying it. They did, repeatedly, under the modest regulations prior to the (severely flawed) ACA, like yearly/lifetime caps, pre-existing conditions, typographical errors on patient claim documents, etc. etc. The ACA got rid of most of those, and insurance companies are still playing games with patients, because they have to if they want to even make overhead and turn a profit too.
The private sector, for-profit model simply can’t work. It’s impossible for both the patient and the insurance company to get what they want at the same time.
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