Do you think socialized medicine runs itself? Sure there will be lots of people laid off in the private sector but some of them (or the equivalent) will have to be hired by the government. The difference is that there will be only one computer system for all of them to learn and no chance for fraud since all physicians will input their data into the same system (no doctor hopping getting multiple prescriptions). Also there will be no need to repeat tests that the last physician did because the results will be all in the same system. Socialized medicine works. All modern westernized countries use it and they are a lot healthier than we are at much less cost. Do a little traveling and find out. Better yet, take up residence in Canada, Germany or England like I did. Or pick another European country of your choice. Their health care systems are so far ahead of ours that the differences will shock you!
I have seen ads for "credit relief" that use statements from the President as if from a press conference followed by a pitch that claims that the government wants people to use credit relief, themselves followed by a pitch for a specific credit "credit reliever" with "Act now! Time is not on your side!"
This is commercial and not political, but it too is abuse. I can look the other way at car dealers shouting "Yes, We Can!" in a context that leaves no ambiguity that it is a sales pitch, especially when "Yes, We Can" applies to getting credit approved for a customer. But use of the President's image as backup for a sales pitch is abominable.
I agree completely with Mr. Lester’s comment. I don’t understand why the public and the media continue to assume that only Insurance companies can be Health Care middlemen. After all, Health Care does not fit the Insurance paradigm. Most health care encounters are not insurable; health care expenses are not “losses” and, since the premiums need to be paid out constantly, income from a premium float is limited.
Further, the insurers do very little to justify the 15-25% profits they take out of our health care dollar. To add insult to injury, they are using those profits to fund the negative campaign against health care reform.
I also agree that the insurers have been very effective in chasing away competition. I have personally had that experience.
Richard Nixon encouraged and signed the HMO act of 1973. This was the start of managed care. What most people have forgotten is that the first HMOs were non-profit, physician organized and managed companies, especially in Northern California. I was one of those physicians. We ran high quality companies with reasonable premiums. Unfortunately, as non-profits, we could not retain reserves year to year. So one by one, we had to become for-profit entities, which were eventually taken over by the insurance industry.
After we started them, the insurers saw cash cows and, using unfair advertising, frightened the public about the horrible HMOs. So they were able to sell their various, confusing managed care options and then took over our failed HMOs. (Ironically, their dire predictions have come true with their HMOs.)
Cooperatives have been suggested by some Senators. Unfortunately, most are small and not really complete Health Service companies. There are successes: Kaiser-Permanente, Group Health of Seattle, and Health Partners of Minnesota are the major ones. Mayo & Cleveland Clinic have been mentioned but they are provider co-ops and still use Insurers as middlemen.
Kaiser and Group Health have had many years to become financially stable. Since these non-profit NGOs would be difficult to duplicate today, our policy makers have rejected this model out of hand. However, there is new legislation that could change the situation.
First Vermont last year and many other states this year have created a new tax category called Low-profit, Limited Liability companies (L3Cs) which, by definition, have in their charters that they are in business to supply health care, not to make profits.
Congress, as part of the Health Reform package (or as an addendum later) could add L3Cs as a federal entity so that each state would not have to go through an IRS review. These groups would be the ideal non-governmental competition to the insurance middlemen, especially since they would offer higher quality health care with the money that does not go to profit. As community entities, they would offer community rated premiums, thus eliminating experience rating that the insurers use unfairly. In my experience as a pediatrician, children have been denied insurance for a normal health history of having “many colds.”
Norman Lewak, MD
This is a very interesting concept. I also used to sell large employer health plans but left the business quite a few years ago. Hence, I am probably not qualified to comment on current trends. But I recall that at least one TPA that I worked with was offering a similar approach, even back in the last millennium. It became increasingly clear to me that there were way too many fingers in the managed care pie. Much touted "savings" that purportedly resulted from all these controls were simply diverted to provide risk-free fee income for a never-ending list of managed care vendors.
Hello,
Read the bill, H. R. 3200. Who cares about all of this chatter, read the bills!
If you feel comfortable with this bill, if you feel comfortable with this degree of federal control over your health care, then you deserve what you get!
I have read the bill and it scares me...
Do your homework before you vote, and if aren't willing to do your own research then please don't vote!!!
I have seen ads for "credit relief" that use statements from the President as if from a press conference followed by a pitch that claims that the government wants people to use credit relief, themselves followed by a pitch for a specific credit "credit reliever" with "Act now! Time is not on your side!"
This is commercial and not political, but it too is abuse. I can look the other way at car dealers shouting "Yes, We Can!" in a context that leaves no ambiguity that it is a sales pitch, especially when "Yes, We Can" applies to getting credit approved for a customer. But use of the President's image as backup for a sales pitch is abominable.
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