Posted on 12/01/2013 4:49:10 PM PST by Innovative
And who is to say that allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines, and having reasonable tort reform won’t work, a leftist dork? It would certainly work better than Obamacare, abusive big government and Democrat tyranny. Forcing people to do what the state thinks is best for them when they can’t afford it, don’t want it, and know they can do better, is typical leftist lunacy.
Listen up leftists, Obama’s Democratcare isn’t going to work. A single payer system isn’t going to work, so you better extract your heads from Obama’s butt, and work with conservatives and the free market to get something that will work.
Healthcare as a problem is largely a supply-side problem. The barriers to entry into the healthcare market are so high that the supply of services is extremely tight. This is largely due to regulation, licensing that limits the supply, and huge capital costs I terms of tine and education. India produces many more doctors and engineers than we do and medical costs are extremely low, for example. The quality of care is very good. Reduce the barriers to entry and the system gets cheaper.
Reagan’s family should sue this SOB for false witness. Reagan never said any such thing. Reagan was opposed to medicare originally. Reagan said, “government is not the answer to our problems, government is the problem. What a damned liar this socialist is!!!
nearly 50 million uninsured Americans and denials for pre-existing conditions.”
We have that many uninsured because many have had their policies cancelled.
Just like dominoes. Wage control, Great society, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, obamacare, country....all fall down.
I think a strong case could be made that it is the government that cause that
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There is absolutely no reason to discuss "free-market solutions" in the context of almost any insurance coverage. ObamaCare only magnifies a problem that already exists in the U.S. and isn't going to get any better no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves otherwise. The REAL problem with our health care system is that it is built on third-party payment as the norm -- regardless of whether that third party is a government or a private company.
All of the basic principles of economics get thrown out the window once you eliminate the direct relationship between the buyer (the patient) and the seller (the medical professional). Once you have a third party involved, the buyer no longer considers pricing and quality together, and the seller no longer worries about quality because payments are made under a rate schedule that has nothing to do with quality.
I disagree with you on that one. Health care is definitely a demand-side problem, because there's no constraint on demand when people don't pay their medical costs out of their own pockets.
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The US graduates about 17,364 MDs and about 4,773 DOs. Yes, India graduates about 6,000 more doctors, but India's population is 3.9 times as large as the US population. US per capita GDP is 33.5 times India's per capita GDP ($49,965 versus $1,489).
The level of medical care offered to Indian visitors and medical tourists is the crème de la crème of their medical system.
Health care in the US hasn't seen a free market since the 19th century. The chances that we'll go back to 19th century freedoms is closer to nil.
Since the US spends twice both as a % of GDP and in $ terms than any other country, and ranks 51st in life expectancy things can clearly improve. And they're going in the wrong direction under Obamacare. But Indian health care spending benchmarks aren't very likely in the US. Who would ever become a doctor? Who would ever stay a doctor?
To the progressive, freedom itself is the problem. It is intolerable. Regulate, dictate, ban, limit, total equality of condition.
“peer nations”—
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A nation with a population of more than 300 million, open borders, benefits to all who enter illegally, nearly $100 trillion in previous unfunded wet dream utopian entitlements, and nearly half the population on the taxpayer dole. Could someone point out which “peer nation” this ass-clown refers to? For some reason it escapes me
Healthcare's woes began during WWII, when FDR initiated wage controls. That forced employers to offer healthcare benefits to attract scarce workers.
It exacerbated when Medicare/Medicaid were enacted. Religious charities, families, and local communities via donations from both individual and businesses took care of the poor and seniors.
If we truly had a free market healthcare system, everybody would be covered. And there would be none of these chronic conditions or diseases plaguing us today.
It amazes me that these people don't see that it is the payoff that makes the creation and improvement of artificial hips and things far more wondrous than that possible.
These innovations are not happening overseas. The best techniques, treatments, and innovations are a result of the American system, the best medical care the world has ever known.
They might sell hips cheaper in England, but someone else made it possible for them to even have that option. Government care will strive for equilibrium of cost, which will be a combination of medical cost + graft + political payoff....the old Soviet system. When all medical systems go that route, then the government systems of the world will race toward stasis.
A real capitalist system is not the so-called "unfettered capitalism" of liberal horror stories, but is the "reality based capitalism" of a moral people. A reality based capitalist health system will take pre-existing conditions into account and will gravitate toward a solution that provides the most coverage for the most people at the least cost resulting in the best sustainable profit.
So, this will fall back on me. I will get to decide to buy the plan that best fits my economic situation. Or, I can have a government bureaucrat decide they won't spend more money on me and will give me pain pills. Would I rather they decide, or would I rather that I decide? That's simple. I know that I trust myself.
So, my plan will provide some level of money beyond which they will pay for no more medical care that year. The maximum might be a million or 2 million or whatever I choose. Likewise, there were already exchanges available for pre-existing conditions. So far as those who had no health insurance, there were many who chose intentionally not to have it. There were a number who would have liked care but didn't have the money to buy anything expensive, so settled for catastrophic care insurance, those who were unable to free up money for other than basic necessities, and those who are mentally or otherwise incompetent who simply don't think on these things. This last group will not sign up for a government program either.
The group of concern is those who are stuck at an income level that takes care only of basic necessities of life. A reality-based capitalist system realizes there are times when these people will need regular medical care, and times when they will need costly medical care. Charity will minister to some of these.
For that group that
Is that you, Milton? ;)
Yeah, the same is true for pharmaceuticals.
I wish that wasn’t the case and don’t know of a free market way to change it. It would be nice if the medical products were priced the same everywhere...higher overseas, less expensive here.
How could that be changed, and why wouldn’t you want to change it?
I disagree with CNN but I disagree strongly with Limbaugh and other conservatives who pooh pooh medical costs and expect people to pay the outragoulsy inflated medical costs out of pocket.
It is easy for a multibillionaire to say pay for it, when in my state people lose homes and assets regularly to hosptials and medical collection agencies. These are not people who want to shirk paying reasonable costs but since there is no competition the prices are outrageous. No CAT scan should cost more than 100 dollars for example and a well run OR suite should never cost more than 200 per hour.
Easy to laugh about paying hosptia bills Rush, but you haven’t watched friends lose everything, businesses, homes and othter assets
It's obviously both. It was a screwed up, inefficient, dysfunctional system before Obamacare, but Obamacare has made it far worse than it was. Big jumps in premiums for more out of pocket liability and less access to quality care.
what an ignorant fool. If he thinks that government regulations and the inability of insurers to sell across state lines is not the fundamental problem then he should go jump off a cliff. He is too stupid to live
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