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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (1020)	2/19/2006 10:58:44 PM
From: Nicholas Thompson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42652

ANYONE WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION CAN DETERMINE THAT IN THE US HEALTH CARE COSTS AT LEAST 50% TO 100% MORE PER CAPITA THAN IN ANY OF THE OTHER 18 INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES; YET OUR HEALTH AND LONGEVITY STATISTICS ARE AT OR NEAR THE BOTTOM OF THESE COUNTRIES IN MOST CATEGORIES. THIS ALONE SAYS IT ALL; OUR SYSTEM IS NOT TO PROVIDE HEALTH CARE BUT TO DENY HEALTH CARE; WHEN THAT CHANGES WE WILL BEGIN TO SEE CHANGES IN THE STATISTICS. WE ARE ALSO FORCING MANY INDUSTRIES OFF SHORE WITH OUR SCREWY HEALTH CARE APPROACH. WAKE UP!

To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (1020)	2/19/2006 11:15:31 PM
From: Robohogs	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

I am not sure that charging more for someone who smokes is such a bad thing - folks have known it was not good for a very long time. But the problem is it sets a precedent for future "issues" such as overweight/obesity/diabetes/etc. I personally believe that the government/doctors are somewhat responsible for some of the diabetes/obesity issues with the ill-conceived old food pyramid and its unintentional heavy reliance on processed carbs. Many people who are fat or obese really do try and control their weights but the low fat/low calorie diets do not seem to work for them. I know that I personally can run 4 times per week and cut back to 1500-2000 calories per day and still not lose weight if there are too many of the wrong foods (and those wrong foods for me are heavily processed carbs). I also believe that someone who is overweight (not obese though) but fit is probably going to cause fewer cost health issues/cost issues than a slim non-exercising person. How do these lines get drawn? Jon PS A 5-10% overweight newly religious exerciser.

To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (1020)	2/20/2006 3:52:09 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Risk based premiums have been a long term goal for insurance companies. The third party payer system is broken, and somehow the system has to be fixed. HSAs should work to restore risk penalties as well as genetic risks to individuals. Insurance companies have an interest in ensuring that medical payment problems are solved through them, rather than by avoiding them. As a former insurance administrator, I can tell you that the sex adjusted risk premium does not level off until the participants are in their sixties. In the eighties I was able to deliver insurance to young men at less than 1/4 of the cost to young women. It increased participation among young men, and helped control costs for the group. Health insurance companies have not solved the problems yet, nor are they ever likely to do so. People are much more adaptable than corporations. The specter of Big Brother forcing and enforcing behaviors is something we should all be worried about. If we decide that we want to cover the risk premiums for our fellow man in order to ensure that our excess risk is also covered, then we should begin soon to pass legislation. In some ways is uniform rate insurance like union labor? The strong carry the weight for the weak. What are our values? Are they worth fighting for?