...just end these wars and use the money to deliver adequate funding to the VA on time.
<blockquote>If you like the VA system, you apparently think that rationed health care (Priority Groups), means testing for benefits, and sub-standard procedures (dirty colonoscopy tubes) is the way to go.</blockquote>
One more time -- how the hell can anyone still say for-profit insurers don't ration care? The difference is, they do it to maximize their bottom line, not to try to deliver what care they can, with the resources they have, to the greatest number of patients.
And if you want to convince people that a government-run system must necessarily perform as badly as our resource-starved VA, you'll have to start by supplying some dirty-colonoscopy stories from the UK, France, et al., and keep going from there.
<blockquote>Fact is, the US Government can't even deliver mail at a profit. Come on folks! Wake up!</blockquote>
You're too quick to say "can't." Not subsidizing junk mail on the backs of first- and second-class users would be a good start.
Wendell and Co.
Glad to have come across your blog today for the first time.
I've often wondered: Why not implement the "public utility" model for health insurance?
That means private insurance companies continue to exist, but are regulated by an "insurance utility board" in each state. The board is charged with making sure insurance companies are providing sufficient service to all customers, have enough in reserves to pay all claims and cannot make more than a 15 percent net profit each year. I have not run any numbers on this kind of model, but would that likely bring down premium costs?
Thank you Wendell for standing up. I've been preaching single-payer system on my blog for quite some time. I'd race you for first place in line to sign up.
My wife contracted ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) following an "inadvertent cut" during routine surgery. Within 48 hours her lungs and kidneys stopped funcitoning and she was found lifeless in her hospital bed. The lack of oxygen caused an anoxic brain injury, but we were never told by hospital staff or attending doctors that had happened.
Months of trying to find out why she was having debilitating migraines, problems thinking, memory problems and vision problems were fruitless until an opthalmalogist said she had 20/20 vision. Her question to him, "Then why can't I see?" He ordered an MRI that revealed the brain injury.
A few more months of visiting a whole new team of specialists ensued that resulted in a recommendation that she be admitted to a neuro-medical facility.
The insurance company refused to pay...at first. Brain injury is best treated within the first few crucial hours following the event. My wife was admitted for treatment 15 months after her event. And only then after her nation-wide corporation threatened to change insurance companies.
Again, thank you.
Dr. David Gratzer is also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Manhattan_Institute_for_Policy_Research
Please do not pretend, LarryC, that there is no conflict of interest in Gratzer's work pertaining to his presentation before Congress.
I think you guys do a fantastic job, and I hope your budget improves - so you can continue to provide a valuable service to our society.
I would only say that you might want to think carefully about hiring former industry insiders as they may very well double cross you. After all, they had the moral emptiness to fill their original roles for years...
What you are thinking now is that they've definitely changed overnight.
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