Posted on 03/05/2010 4:51:49 AM PST by Desperado67
Yesterday Barack Obama set a two-week deadline to get a deal on healthcare reform completed. Some Democrats have expressed hopes and others have expressed doubts that it will get done by Easter. Of course, previously it was supposed to be done by last Labor Day and then by Thanksgiving and then by Christmas and then…well, you get the idea.
It has been a long and arduous process, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, and so forth. There has been talk about the issue from every part of the political spectrum and from every water-cooler and kitchen table in America. Despite all the rhetoric, the facts, the falsities, the fury and the fantasies, the bottom line is that the only definitive result is that private health insurance companies will be out of business in the fairly near future.
That may seem like a ridiculous assertion given how Obama and the Democrats have demagogued the health insurance companies recently as being greedy and making ‘obscene’ profits. Of course, given their net margins of around 2% on average, it is hard to say that their profits are really all that obscene.
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Part of the problem with healthcare insurance is, you are paying a middle man to deal with your healthcare provider and hospitals. There has to be a better and cheaper way. Maybe only having catastrophic health care then a health care savings account.
I’ve always thought of healthcare insurance as being like federal and state loans for education. It drives the end prices up, because the providers know the money is available.
It will just save or create more unemployment claims
“Maybe only having catastrophic health care then a health care savings account.”
I had this conversation with a co worker a few days ago. He pays 1300.00 a month for his family My catastrophic ins is 139.00 a month (they call it ‘high deductable’). I asked him what financial advisor would advise throwing that wad of money out every month to get out of paying for shots and visits? I told him to consider what that kind of money PER MONTH could do for him investment wise.
You are on to something here. Perhaps it should be titled Back to the Future because that is where we were before, especially in pre-Medicare days. I can recall my parents (I'm a boomer from 1955) referring to something called "hospitalization" insurance because what was being insured was the large cost of going in the hospital. Getting routine doctor visits paid for through insurance was not part of the coverage. The introduction of Medicare created a market influence, aka the 800-pound gorilla called government, that tilted the doctor-patient relationship for all, not just the Medicare crowd.
The truth is that we’ve had government-run health care for decades, with insidious regulations over many many acts of legislation. The mandates, medicare, medicaid, VA, required ER services to anyone, required bureacracy... the government is already way too involved in our health. One could even imagine that the folks who thought up these regulations over the past 50 years or more, while trying to fix one problem or another, always had in mind the agenda linking ALL the problems: to weigh down health care by an ounce now and another ounce then, so that it would collapse under tons of pressure later. Thus, generating the current clamor for “Health Care Reform”. And mark these words... if HCR should pass, it would lead to a need for future reforms to fix the newly-created problems, and the cycle repeats.
I work with an engineer that I have nicknamed Eeyore. He keeps harping that since I am 55, and self employed, it is impossible for me to get health insurance, or I am probalby paying $1500 a month in premiums. Both not true by a huge amount. Of course he is a Democrat, who blames Bush for all the worlds ills and hates Texans. This is Minnesota.
You’re lucky to be able to get catastrophic. You must not have any pre-existing conditions.
“You must not have any pre-existing conditions.”
I’m betting it comes to more than pre existing conditions. I’d bet that they have profiles that they use. They have stats on EVERYTHING.
Life is a pre-existing condition. ;-)
Even with computerization, processing medical insurance claims is a huge part of insurance costs.
The high volume of health maintenance check-ups, prescription refills, immunizations, etc., if paid by the patient would reduce administrative costs to physicians and insurance companies (and patients).
We should treat our bodies’ upkeep much like oil changes and other vehicle maintenance - which are not covered by auto insurance.
Catastrophic health insurance was the original concept - and makes sense financially for all participants.
They suck all the life and energy out of you, if you let them. I'm hoping a few swift kicks will do the trick.
That’s like the letter I heard one of the dems read yesterday. I’m getting sick of that too. You can always find someone with a horrible story, it’s life. The letter was from a 50 year old woman. She pays $8,000 a year and her deductible was something like $2400. She only used $800 for health care last year so that was out of her own pocket. Why doesn’t she do just what you are doing. She would have $6000+/- in the bank by the end of the year.
However they decide it, what do we do about people who can’t get catastrophic insurance? Other than let the hospitals eat the costs.
Both good ideas. We need to get the costs down.
Out of pocket for doctor instead of going through an insurance company would end up being cheaper for the doc. The doc wouldn't have to pay someone to deal with the insurance companies. So the cost of visits would go down.
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