SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Road Walker who wrote (343481)7/17/2007 4:31:01 PM
From: Tenchusatsu  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1576290
 
JF, > What problems would be multiplied how? Be specific.

If we had a true "pay as you go" system in health insurance, we would not have escalating costs.

If people actually had to pay full price for their brand-name prescription medication, Big Pharma would not be able to charge so much because the market would quickly learn to accept generics.

I already covered malpractice lawsuits, etc. But I'll also add that doctors more often than not make a real good faith attempt to solve the problems of the patients. Now because of malpractice, they have to spend extraordinary amounts of money on malpractice insurance. Sure, the doctors aren't becoming homeless because of it, because the costs just get passed on to other people.

I still believe the following article is accurate and gets to the root problems of rising health care costs:

finance.yahoo.com

I remember you dismissed it as something that looks like it was written by the insurance companies.

Now the bottom line, i.e. why I think universal health care will multiply the problems. Because you will never have a true "pay as you go" system as long as your priority is making sure everyone has health coverage regardless of their ability to pay. Then you add a bureaucratic culture that actively discourages cutting costs because that means the budget for next year will be smaller. Then you add the politics that favors the existence of an entitlement over the quality of service provided, much like the way King-Drew Medical Center survived for years despite many patients dying due to neglect, etc.

Based on all that, you would have a tough time convincing me that federal bureaucrats would do any better than those working for private health insurance.

Tenchusatsu