<<But the biggest problem in healthcare costs is that medicare will not pay its fair share so the balance gets laid off on the rest of the population.>>
That's certainly a big problem, but not the biggest. Ultimately, if we look at overall healthcare costs it really is a zero sum game whether they are born by industry, government or individuals. Either way, inflation is rampant.
<< Further, there is little cost resistance at the patient level because of the one size fits all approach to medical coverage>>
I agree, however, MSA's and other solutions that might introduce more cost awareness on the part of consumers have not been given a fair chance by government. The trend appears to be more and not less regulation of the insurers, and that does not bode well for introduction of these sorts of plans in the future.
<< If each family shopped for its own insurance or other plan price resistance would be introduced. I learned when I was no longer under employer-provided life, health and
disability insurance that I could get plans better suited to my family - full selection of physicians for instance -and paid less in every instance.>>
You're fortunate in that (presumably) you and your family enjoy good health and are not considered to be an underwriting risk. If you were, say, diabetic, I think you might find the insurance options and prices available to be much less attractive (if you could get coverage at all). On a large, nationwide scale, returning to individual and small group coverage for health insurance will not work unless coverage is coupled with community rating rules(i.e, everyone the insurance is offerred to is underwritten at the same rates), because the companies will "cherry-pick" and exclude anyone with anything other than a minor health issue. Then where do those (excluded) folks go for coverage? That's right, to some government sponsered health collective, like medicare or medicaid. They the publicly funded part of health care gets larger, and exerts even more of a distorting force (as you pointed out in your earlier post) on health care economics. |
