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| Michael Moore Will Only Endorse Single Payer |
| Friday, February 22, 2008 |
The Clinton and Obama Healthcare plans are curious. On one side, I am concerned about the economic dislocation that would occur, if the plans put in place do not benefit the insurance companies, but in fact injure the insurance companies then people will lose jobs and one of the stalwarts of the economy and an industry that has a bright future as presently constituted will stop putting investment dollars into the market.
Michael Moore, who is more of a socialist, seems to think (and with good reason) that the insurance companies stand to benefit from the Clinton (or Obama) systems. Michael Moore wants to see a single-payer system. This is a very socialist and liberal position, but it also, really the only way that a Universal Healthcare system would really work anyway - and that is exactly what the health insurance companies will not stand for. The healthcare companies would spend all of their profits for a year to prevent a law from going into place that would put them out of business or make their business permanently unprofitable. The business has no other reason to exist other than to generate a profit.
There was an interesting result from arbitration on healthcare insurance refusing to cover an enrolled member. The Health.net policy cancellation is something right out of SiCKO
How's this for a conspiracy:
Maybe the healthcare companies are actually encouraging the news outlets to cover stories on healthcare failures, so the American public will agree to put in place a public/private (fascist) initiative that will enrich the insurance companies and introduce barriers to competition cementing the existing healthcare providers as the middleman and administrators of the new system and guaranteeing long-term dividend yielding profits that will not demand continuous development of efficiency.
Are article like this part of the conspiracy? (Business Week article) Anything is possible.
Healthcare is expensive, because trying to live forever is expensive. If you want the latest great cures, then you have to pay more. And, the insurance companies know this that is why they don't want to have people enrolled who are: chronically ill, overweight, hypochondriacs, in dangerous occupations, or pre-disposed to terminal illnesses that do not cause death to arrive swiftly. Of course, if you pay them good they will certainly sign you up until they have to pay.
The cost of healthcare can be reduced, but insurers will need some reform on the tort side in order for it to make sense to them. Lawsuits need to get cheaper and less frequent. And, the amount that American are charged for prescription medication needs to come down. the government needs to be the buyer for the pills and prescriptions. It should outright by the patents for drugs that are significantly better than those existing in the market and make them available at the lowest possible cost, while immediately rewarding the drug research firms and thereby encouraging them to come out with more breakthroughs. Healthcare is a mess, but, unless you are a part-socialist or a part-fascist (and most folks at some level are one or the other) some the proposals that are on the table appear to be problematic in implementing while maintaining an environment of free-market capitalism.
Healthcare always want to put more people on the rolls - especially children and young people (who represent a large number of the uninsured), because kids tend to get over their illnesses. There is a lot of money there. Kids get sick but most don't. The life insurance companies should be trying to get mandatory life insurance laws as long as we are going after "universal healthcare"- after all "No parent should be left with the burden of paying for the funeral expenses of their child". Mandatory enrollment in life insurance for kids would be a boon for the life insurance company, so I guess the mandatory insurance proposals that keep the insurance companies involved would, likewise, be a boon for insurance companies. |
posted by Domesticated Dog @ 7:25 PM   |
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