Posted on 12/01/2013 4:49:10 PM PST by Innovative
The basic conservative position is that the more you let market forces operate, the better the outcome will be. "More markets" is the answer to everything: Let people buy insurance across state lines. Make it virtually impossible to sue for medical malpractice. Create more health savings accounts.
But where do you think the problems of America's health care system came from? It wasn't government that gave us nearly 50 million uninsured Americans and denials for pre-existing conditions.
Every one of our peer nations has a system with more government control than ours, ranging from almost completely socialized systems like Great Britain's to ones like those in Switzerland and the Netherlands, which resemble Obamacare but with tighter regulation.
The Affordable Care Act can certainly be improved. But in health care -- to paraphrase Ronald Reagan -- the free market isn't the answer to our problems. It is the problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Of course it was government. The skyrocketing costs of virtually any health care, insurance, medical procedure, equipment, or disposable item is causally related to the fact that government reimburses the private entities who offer these services and products at multiple times retail, far in excess of what any free market would bear.
This creates a feeding frenzy of over-billing and rising prices as the health care industry becomes dependent on feeding at the government trough. It's corporate welfare, plain and simple.
Who are these idiots trying to fool? Low information voters, that's who. Health care costs started getting ridiculous just about the time government started subsidizing and over-regulating it.
It's the classic statist tactic of using government to create the "emergency", and then getting the People to beg for the government-imposed "solution", which of course entails even more control over our lives.
I can't believe these people could even write such tripe with a straight face.
When did Rush ever say that?
In a healthy healthcare system, people would pay routine medical costs out of pocket, and, because of a functioning free market, those costs would be reasonable. Insurance would only kick in for extraordinary costs — e.g., you develop cancer or you need an expensive drug to control a chronic condition or you get in an accident or something.
Of course, Rush is rich enough to self-insure. But some sort of high-deductible protection is best for the rest of us, so we don't overpay premiums and don't go bankrupt if we do get sick. It should be fully portable and renewable. Prices for treatments should be fully transparent. You should be able to shop for coverage across state lines, state insurance commissioners be damned.
Same place every other major problem in the economy came from:
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Before the federal government started pouring billions into health care the actual cost of a doctor or hospital was reasonable and affordable.
People didn't need healthcare insurance for everyday medical needs - they could afford to pay the doctor or hospital directly.
Forty years ago it cost less than $200 for a woman to have a baby in a hospital. A doctor's visit for common medical problems could be aomewhere between $10 and $50 or so.
Federal money has distorted the cost of medical care just like it has distorted the cost of college and everthing else the federal government touches.
You are seeing today an all out attempt to marshal the forces of the opposition, using not merely the communists, or their fellow travelers-the deluded liberals,
the eggheads, and some of my good friends in both the Democratic
and Republican Parties who can become heroes over night in the eyes of the left-wing press if they will just join with the jackal pack.
-Joseph R. McCarthy
And that's exactly what HSAs are (were) for.
Did anyone ask the 50 million if they even want insurance? How many are rich and self-insure, how many are single young-immortals, how many are illegal aliens?
and denials for pre-existing conditions.
These people are guaranteed claims, usually $100K/yr. That's what High Risk Pools are for. Most states have one.
Don’t need to go back to the 19th century—simply before WW2 would suffice.
Third party is an issue, but at least with a private employer, they have choice in what sort of plan, or plans to offer, and work to get the lowest cost plan that will still meet the needs of their employees, present or future. A medical savings account, an expanded Flex plan sort of thing would probably be better, I'd agree, but still private employers paying all or part is still better than the government doing it. In the end, you can leave your employer, you can't leave the government.
Did anyone ask the 50 million if they even want insurance?
Out of that 50 million without employer-provided health insurance, are perhaps as many as 9-10 million U.S. citizens who want health insurance and can’t afford health insurance, or were already eligible for Medicaid.
Whenever I see an article like this, I want to give the author the “Gibbs Head Smack”.
LOL.
Ignore? If you want to cover people with pre existing conditions,then call it what it is,a welfare program,because that is what it is,not insurance.
Go to the American people and say we want to fund a new govt. Program,to give sick people care and will pay for it with a new tax,don’t tell a private company they will provide payments for sick people whether you like it or not,That is UnAmerican.
Paul Waldman
JournoList
Paul Waldman, Author, was an identified member of JournoList - an email group of approximately 400 “progressive” and socialist journalists, academics and “new media” activists.
JournoList members reportedly coordinated their messages in favor of Barack Obama and the Democrats, and against Sarah Palin and the Republican Party. JournoList was founded in 2007 and was closed down in early 2010.
The American Prospect
In 2009 Paul Waldman was listed as a Senior Correspondent of The American Prospect. He is also a senior fellow at Media Matters for America.
He’s not directly quoting Ronald Reagan. He’s just taking an actual quote and twisting it so that it says what he thinks it should say.
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