" wrote in
:

On Oct 19, 1:12*pm, RickH wrote:
On Oct 19, 11:02*am, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:





On 10/19/11 11:06 am, Robert Green wrote:

I think many of the Tea Partiers realize that they acheived
financial security in a much hotter market with jobs that
provided significantl
y more
benefits and they fear redistribution of that wealth to people
living
in
today's much tougher times. *Back then, a man could raise a
family
and send
his kids to college without his wife having to work. *Those days
ar
e long,
long gone. *Retirees starting to draw from their 401K's probably
do
n't
realize that unless they have kids who are struggling. *Try
getting
a job in
your 50's. *Most companies won't admit it, but they know older
empl
oyees
will cause their health costs to soar so they avoid them unless
there
's no
other choice.

Thia is another reason why we need universal health insurance
coverage with premiums dependent on income rather than on
employment. Employers paying health insurance premiums was an
accident of US history that has no advantages and serious
disadvantages.

Perce

What we need in health care is open pricing, bigger suppy of
providers, and insurance used in a way it is meant to be used, that
is as protection from financial devistation. *Do these three things
and the "cost side" of the equations will come under control. *As
long as health services are always provided with "somebody elses
money" via a health insurance policy that covers things that people
should be paying out of pocket for (like flu shots, stitches,etc)
costs will not come down natually. *Insurance should oonly pay if the
cost os over $5000 (or some formula that would cause financial
devistation). *The govt should make policy that drives down costs.
*All they have done recently is make policy that guarantees higher
costs, by covering every possible little ailment, reducing incentives
for more people to enter medicine, allowing hospitals to hide their
pricing, etc. *Unless costs are encouraged to go down, the current
trajectory and recent legislation (obamacare) is unsustainable. *Hell
they just got rid of the long-term care mandate last friday because
they relize it does absolutely nothing on the cost side and would
bankrupt the whole plan.

Try calling 4 hospitals some time to get their "standard price" for a
colonoscopy because you want to pay out of pocket. *You will get 4
wildly different, non-competing, capricious prices all of which are
artificially inflated, if you get any answer at all or they dont give
you a blank stare like "wow nobody ever asked us that before". *That
my friend is an indicator of a "sick" market on the cost side. *No
business model is sustainable where pricing is not widely known,
advertised and corrected by competition and advancements in
efficiency. *Our system is doomd simply because pricing is a big
secret with many hands trying to get their piece of it under the
table, and the doctor is shafted further increasing the cost by
decreasing the doctors available.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well said and excellent points. I've said for a long time that
what we need to do is get free market principles applied to
healthcare. We should be asking the question if free markets
can supply corn flakes, cars, and even life or auto insurance
at reasonable prices, what's wrong with healthcare? I'd
like to see a committee put together with some top business
CEOs, like Andy Grove, Jack Welch, etc to research it and
figure out what exactly is wrong and how we can fix it.

Instead, we just created another big govt progrm that is
going to do nothing to stop spiraling costs. Those costs
are ultimately still going to be paid by most of us, either
directly or through taxes.

Nonsense. How will you educate Joe Commoner so he can properly evaluate
the charges, caring and qualifications of any kind of professional?
Maybe I should go for a cold efficient doctor who'll just cut and heal my
(whatever). Or should I go for the warm and fuzzy one, who made more
mistakes?

Free markets can only work if just about everyone can fully evaluate the
services provided, and in the case of healthcare that's baloney.

--
Best regards
Han
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