Re: The Root Cause of Rising Health Care Costs

S. Doo wrote:

The bulk of health care is *already* purchased outside the free
enterprise system in the US.

That's what's caused this whole mess.

Nope. The whole mess is caused because people are easy to misslead with the
lies about the free market. The truth is that health insurance it is
incompatible with business practice. Here are few details:

http://groups.google.com/group/talk.politics.misc/msg/7ab93c58f82cadfd?hl=en&;


Keep in mind a study published last year.
We pay per capita for health care 2.5 times as Brits yet:

- we have almost 16% of the population uninsured while they insure everybody
for a fraction of the cost

- we are much sicker than they despite the fact that Brits drink and smoke
more than us

- over 50% of the bankruptcies in US are successfull middle class families
sent into bankruptcy due to additional costs associated with a serious
illness. This is unheard of in Europe.

- over 18000 Americans die each year as a direct result of unaffordable
health care

- from all the industrialized world only Latvia have a bigger rate in infant
mortality. US is overpassed by countries that pay per capita less than 1/5
of what US pays


Yet, here we go again. Always a fanatic pops up in newsgroups with lies
about the "HUGE BENEFITS OF FREE MARGET IN HEALTH CARE" when the reality
shows exactly the opposite. Free market in health care it is a lamentable
failure.

Imagine this was food instead. Suppose the politicians said food is
*too important to life* to be supplied unfairly by the free market, so
the government must provide it to all instead. So they nationalized
most of the food stores, took the previous average food expenditure of
the average person, stocked its nationalized stores with "free" food
in that amount, and then hit everyone with taxes to pay for it.


In the case of food, the farmer will make more money if he sell more food
while customer will eat better if he is sold more food. There is no
contradiction in interest here. The market can work.
In the case of insurance, the sick people's interest is to get as much care
he need while the interest of insurer is to pay as less as he can. He does
not make money proportional with how much he cover, but with how much he
can avoid to cover for a given premium. We have a contradiction in interest
here. The market can not work properly.

This contradiction is the reason why unless in food industry we have here:
copayment, coinsurance, cap limit, deductible, uncovered expenses,
precondition and so on. They are cheat sheets insurer can use to reduce his
payments.

What would happen? Well, obviously, everybody who was very happy with
hamburger and tuna five days a week previously would head right to
collect filet mignon and lobster every day -- and why not, they've
already paid for it with their taxes haven't they??


Precondition - At the door the waiter ask you: "Are you hungry?"
You say: "Yes I am, this is the reason I want food". The waiters say:
"Sorry hungry people are NOT eligible to receive food".

Deductible - You have to bring with you salt, pepper, onion and sugar in
order to be eligible to receive food.

Cap Limit - After one plate you can not receive anymore food from this
restaurant. And of course, if you are still hungry you can not enter in any
another restaurant since you have a precondition.

And so on and so on. If the food industry would behave this way, I would
also say that they are incompatible with business practice. But they do not
because your interest (as hungry man) and their interest (food provider)
are into the same direction: more food.

The problem with the cost of medical care is lack of cost-reducing
innovation.

So everybody else in the world is more innovative than US ?
Geeee ...........

Lies, lies and more lies to justify the huge rip off for the benefit of rich
corporations. To justify crime, lost of life and families destroyed just
because a rich shareholder or CEO from an insurance company want to get a
few more jetons to play on a casino. These are blood money.

Enough is enough. It is time to learn from the rest of the world:
Human life is more important than the proffit of a few greedy bastards that
pays billions into PR campains against universal health care. Money that
can insure hundred of thousands of kids are wasted to lobby against their
right to live.

Universal health care is the only solution compatible with a human society.


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