Some Health care truths that apply elsewhere as well.
Paul Krugman gives a dose of reality on health care.
don't work for health care - never have, never will.
I have a friend that I have know for around 10 years. He has
an MBA and works for an insurance co. He is definitely NOT
a left wing fanatic. In fact his politics are more slightly right of
center.
We got into a discussion the other day about why America
has been getting so severely trounced by foreign manufactures.
My contention was that there was far too much emphasis on
profit and not enough on product. But he brought up the point
the most of the large and a good number of the smaller foreign
products are subsidized by their respective governments.
Now here is the part that rather surprised me. His belief is that
for the US to regain the competitive edge again, we need to do
this also. That capitalism in the world today without some sort
of government subsidy and regulation simply does not work.
It is far too expensive for any company to try an bare the burden
of research, development and distribution of any new product by
it self and that investors would not help as they are primarily
interest in returns which do not occur initially from this. And unrestrained
capitalism will simply eat itself and all around it. As Paul said
about health care really applies to all markets. Unregulated
markets simply do not work !
Now I am going to make a statement that may cause some of the
more conservative types here to raise their blood pressure.
We all ready do this. We are at least partially socialist.
Every time an ear mark makes it into a Bill in Congress we are
engaging in socialist government subsidy. Anytime a bill contains
tax payer money for food, drugs, roads, energy, aircraft (and on and on)
we are engaging in socialism in some form or another.
So for anyone to scream socialism at health care (or anything else)
to try and scare off the public is shear nonsense. It's like yelling
water while swimming.
C
Yet private markets for health insurance, leftLet me repeat that last part. But unregulated markets
to their own devices, work very badly: insurers
deny as many claims as possible, and they also
try to avoid covering people who are likely to
need care. Horror stories are legion: the
insurance company that refused to pay for
urgently needed cancer surgery because of
questions about the patient's acne treatment;
the healthy young woman denied coverage because
she briefly saw a psychologist after breaking up
with her boyfriend.
And in their efforts to avoid "medical losses,"
the industry term for paying medical bills,
insurers spend much of the money taken in
through premiums not on medical treatment, but
on "underwriting" - screening out people likely
to make insurance claims. In the individual
insurance market, where people buy insurance
directly rather than getting it through their
employers, so much money goes into underwriting
and other expenses that only around 70 cents of
each premium dollar actually goes to care.
Still, most Americans do have health insurance,
and are reasonably satisfied with it. How is
that possible, when insurance markets work so
badly? The answer is government intervention.
Most obviously, the government directly provides
insurance via Medicare and other programs.
Before Medicare was established, more than 40
percent of elderly Americans lacked any kind of
health insurance. Today, Medicare - which is, by
the way, one of those "single payer" systems
conservatives love to demonize - covers everyone
65 and older. And surveys show that Medicare
recipients are much more satisfied with their
coverage than Americans with private insurance.
Still, most Americans under 65 do have some form
of private insurance. The vast majority,
however, don't buy it directly: they get it
through their employers. There's a big tax
advantage to doing it that way, since employer
contributions to health care aren't considered
taxable income. But to get that tax advantage
employers have to follow a number of rules;
roughly speaking, they can't discriminate based
on pre-existing medical conditions or restrict
benefits to highly paid employees.
And it's thanks to these rules that
employment-based insurance more or less works,
at least in the sense that horror stories are a
lot less common than they are in the individual
insurance market.
So here's the bottom line: if you currently have
decent health insurance, thank the government.
It's true that if you're young and healthy, with
nothing in your medical history that could
possibly have raised red flags with corporate
accountants, you might have been able to get
insurance without government intervention. But
time and chance happen to us all, and the only
reason you have a reasonable prospect of still
having insurance coverage when you need it is
the large role the government already plays.
Which brings us to the current debate over
reform.
Right-wing opponents of reform would have you
believe that President Obama is a wild-eyed
socialist, attacking the free market. But
unregulated markets don't work for health care -
never have, never will. To the extent we have a
working health care system at all right now it's
only because the government covers the elderly,
while a combination of regulation and tax
subsidies makes it possible for many, but not
all, nonelderly Americans to get decent private
coverage.
Now Mr. Obama basically proposes using
additional regulation and subsidies to make
decent insurance available to all of us. That's
not radical; it's as American as, well, Medicare.
don't work for health care - never have, never will.
I have a friend that I have know for around 10 years. He has
an MBA and works for an insurance co. He is definitely NOT
a left wing fanatic. In fact his politics are more slightly right of
center.
We got into a discussion the other day about why America
has been getting so severely trounced by foreign manufactures.
My contention was that there was far too much emphasis on
profit and not enough on product. But he brought up the point
the most of the large and a good number of the smaller foreign
products are subsidized by their respective governments.
Now here is the part that rather surprised me. His belief is that
for the US to regain the competitive edge again, we need to do
this also. That capitalism in the world today without some sort
of government subsidy and regulation simply does not work.
It is far too expensive for any company to try an bare the burden
of research, development and distribution of any new product by
it self and that investors would not help as they are primarily
interest in returns which do not occur initially from this. And unrestrained
capitalism will simply eat itself and all around it. As Paul said
about health care really applies to all markets. Unregulated
markets simply do not work !
Now I am going to make a statement that may cause some of the
more conservative types here to raise their blood pressure.
We all ready do this. We are at least partially socialist.
Every time an ear mark makes it into a Bill in Congress we are
engaging in socialist government subsidy. Anytime a bill contains
tax payer money for food, drugs, roads, energy, aircraft (and on and on)
we are engaging in socialism in some form or another.
So for anyone to scream socialism at health care (or anything else)
to try and scare off the public is shear nonsense. It's like yelling
water while swimming.
C
