Larry Jaques wrote in
:

On Fri, 29 Jun 2012 09:19:15 -0400, "G. Ross"
wrote:

Lew Hodgett wrote:
Today's vote by the SCOTUS was amazing.

Now let the fun and games begin.

Lew

What was amazing at the start was the premise that you could furnish
health care for more people for less money. Never made sense, but
they said it with a straight face.

I believe their theory is that all of us who rarely use doctors will
be paying for those who do.

I believe that compulsory healthcare insurance is a good thing. Until
now, if your insurance or lack of it does not cover a needed expense, you
are at the mercy of the doctor or other healthcare provider. Of course
you could negotiate to get what you need for less than half of the
"charge", and sometimes you might be successful, but usually you'd need
to pay twice or more of what the insurance company pays for the same
treatment. Now everyone pays the same in healthcare insurance, and the
insurance companies negotiate with the providers. We "only" need
databases to find out actual amounts paid for each condition to decide
where a certain treatment is most economical (and best, of course).

At the moment, the cost of care often includes a surcharge to help pay
for indigent caren (in NY City, there is a 8.5% or so surcharge that
insurance covers, but that deals with the cost of under and uninsured).

There wil be no more COBRA where it would cost $1000 plus/month to get
insurance if your hours were reduced to the extent that you don't have
benefits anymore, or get laid off. Skip on the insurance for a while,
and then you have a pre-existing condition, and no more insurance,
period.

Of course, I would think that a nationwide single payor insurance system
would cut out most of the duplications in administering insurance, but it
would also cut what little competition there is left, so it is doubtful
which is worse. I am all in favor of good wages for healthcare
personnel, but currently much of the costs are associated with needless
bureaucracy, duplicating "state of the art" care that doesn't help more
than regular exercise, and I could go on. Let's focus on that, and on
the question how much end of life care should cost, in comparison to the
quality of life. I know I tread perhaps on sensitive toes, and I would
like to submit that at that time, insurance and treatment choices should
be made. I have a living will etc set up. Do you? In the absence of
proper instructions, the doctors and hospitals will clean you out.


--
Best regards
Han
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