They 'buy it'. He who has the gold makes the rules. It's not a free market when the buyer is not the person that receives the benefit.
What are you talking about? They "buy it" as a benefit for their employees. This is the employer's prerogative. Where it gets screwed up is when you have government trying to MANDATE employers to buy it. AFAIK, any employee is free to buy their own coverage should they choose to do so.
All I've seen for you is slight efficiencies around the edges to improve costs. You are constantly defending the cost structure.
So what is your solution?
There is no single "solution". You go in and fix the problems where they are. But you don't throw out the best health care system in the world and start from scratch. I know that much.
You have it in your head that government can take over the payment processing system -- the LEAST EXPENSIVE part of the entire system -- and save money. It doesn't work that way.
To save money -- significant amounts of money -- you're going to have to cut services. The lie of saving billions upon billions by improving efficiency has been held out before you and you have bought it hook, line and sinker. Some savings, sure. But trivial in amount.
As gg pointed out, you are going to have to get rid of some of those life-flight choppers. You are going to have to make hard calls on chemo that only marginally extends people's lives. You are going to have fewer Level I Trauma Centers. You are going to have lines at CT scanners and longer lines at MRI centers. You are going to have to reduce fixed costs by closing down hospitals. You are going to have to say, "Yes, it is fine with us if the most brilliant minds in America choose engineering rather than medicine because the pay is too low." Some people are going to die because instead of Zoloft they're taking Prozac.
Most Americans who, presented with that choice, will not go along with SGP. If you tell them the truth -- that under SGP the quality of their care has to suffer, they don't want it. Apparently, you think the lie is the way to go. You think it is fine for Obama to stand up and claim he'll cut costs will improving health care. That is a damned lie.
I think it would be far better to present Americans with an honest choice. I don't know whether you are part of the lie or just don't understand the subject. But either way, I don't believe it is good for America to lead the masses down this path only to have to tell them later, "Sorry, what we told you wasn't right. Your health care system has been decimated. Ooops." |
