<blockquote>COMPETITION is what keeps a checks and balances on price and quality. In a free market, especially one like healthcare where people care tremendously about the price and quality of service, poor and expensive service providers would have long ago gone out of business....</blockquote>
So, how's life tucked away there in John Galt's hidden valley?
Like the corporate sharks wouldn't do just about anything to avoid real, honest-to-goodness competition. The industry has all those lobbyists crawling all over Capitol Hill because they want government out of the way so they can all compete with each other to bring us all the best care at the lowest cost. Sure.
If government has anything to do with why competition among for-profit providers hasn't maximized quality and minimized costs for health care consumers, <i>it's because the industry wants it that way.</i>
<blockquote>It's an all-you-can-eat-buffet and the ones binging the most are the ones for which the service is prepaid by government (medicare) or by private enterprise (private insurance).</blockquote>
Well, I just had cataract removal and lens implantation in my left eye on Medicare. I can see better now, and it's legal for me to drive a car with that eye alone.
But you know what? Medicare will pay for my other eye as well, so I'm going to "binge" and get that one done, too. Too bad if you don't like that. :-)
Randy, correction: you wrote ,if we adopt a health care system like the British and Canadians only the rich will be able to afford health care. It's in AMERICA today that only the rich can afford health care. . RE: the government can't do anything well. Correction: the U.S. military works very well, wouldn't you agree? No one seems to be trying to ditch their medicare policies for private ones; why do you suppose that is?
The FDA "lab analysis" uses double standards and false alarms to scare people!!
"Prominent Tobacco Researchers Expose Double Standard in FDA's Study of Electronic Cigarettes and Challenge FDA's Alarmist Attitude Toward the Devices"
Wendell, congratulations on your new official position as the "insurance industry whistleblower". I wish you would stick to the facts and not interject judgement on your idea of the utopian solution which sounds more and more like communism to me.
The current systems is a disaster specifically because the government started meddling in what should have been a free and transparent system consisting of lots of players and competition. COMPETITION is what keeps a checks and balances on price and quality. In a free market, especially one like healthcare where people care tremendously about the price and quality of service, poor and expensive service providers would have long ago gone out of business and been replaced by a range of options for consumers at any price. Want decent/cheap medical care? There would have been the "Wal*Mart" of medical care. Want luxury top rate service? There would have been the Neiman Marcus of medical care. Unfortunately right now all that exists is expensive medical care because the only way hospitals can compete is by getting the latest and greatest shiny gadgetry to attract so-called consumers that, once insured, have no skin in the game. It's an all-you-can-eat-buffet and the ones binging the most are the ones for which the service is prepaid by government (medicare) or by private enterprise (private insurance).
Unfortunately, the same government that you know advocate control and dispense all of our medical care consists of the very same 535 Congressmen that sold out Americans in favor of the current crony capitalist system that benefits insurers at the expense of consumers and doctors. Who benefits from the forced medicare participation scheme? www.aetnamedicare.com does. I would love it if I was the CEO of industry that swayed government policy so that everyone had to buy my "insurance" and the government guaranteed payment. And then I dispensed that money to "vendors" (doctors) who were forced, under threat of prosecution I might add, into providing their services at a price they would otherwise refuse to work if not threatened. (Isn't forced service akin to slavery? or theft?)
We need to get govt OUT of the business of medical care not more into it. They're already in the business of educating our children much to the detriment of US intellect in comparison to other nations.
Competition provides a better checks and balances than any government could. And any scheme the government comes up with is sure to be devoid of competition which leads to great inefficiency and cost. One need only look to education to see proof of that. They only way the govt school system "works" is by collecting revenue from people that don't even consume the service -- every property owner whether they have kids or not and whether they use the school system or not -- pays big time! Govt has to "zone" because some schools are so crappy they wouldn't have a single customer if people had free choice.
If you really think the government is going to come in and create more freedom, more choice, better quality and lower prices, you are myopic my friend.
The FDA "lab analysis" uses double standards and false alarms to scare people!!
"Prominent Tobacco Researchers Expose Double Standard in FDA's Study of Electronic Cigarettes and Challenge FDA's Alarmist Attitude Toward the Devices"
Source: http://www.tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/
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