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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: Cogito who wrote (51479)	3/3/2008 7:30:14 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) of 543488

Those statements don't take into account the fact that insurers negotiate with providers to set costs for procedures. They do. Remember that we're not talking about a fixed set of procedures at a decreasing cost. We're talking about a dramatically increasing set of procedures at a cost that's being restrained somewhat from the point to which it would have otherwise escalated. The net result is an increase. I suppose that if everyone had to pay for healthcare out of pocket, we'd be in a very different situation. Very few people would ever pay for MRIs or CAT scans or things like that. True. But you're introducing another element. We were talking about costs. they'd just die instead. The very cheapest system is one in which everyone dies just as soon as their health noticeably fails. Note that I am not trying to say that you have advocated such a system. I'm just musing. :) You're just musing and I'm just trying to keep the analysis of a very complicated system organized. Costs are costs and service level is service level. People do want to be covered by insurance in case something horrible happens, so employers offer insurance benefits as a means of attracting and retaining quality employees. That's the way it started. And it started out small. If it had ended there with what we now call catastrophic insurance, we probably wouldn't be in this fix. But health "insurance," now a misnomer, got away from insurance and into a health care package model. Over time, anything less than that was treated as sub-standard. [Personal note: my folks had Blue Cross when I was young. My father was an oft-unemployed construction laborer without an employer plan yet he was able to pay for the insurance. I mention that for perspective on how affordable it once was.] I, for one, am quite grateful that I had continued to pay for my own health coverage, through the COBRA program, after leaving my last employer. I'm glad it worked for you but sorry you had to go through that. I have used my insurance a lot over the years, albeit not as dramatically as you. I never had bills high enough that I couldn't have paid them on my own if I'd had to but I'm sure better off financially than I would have been without it.

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