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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (110387)	1/6/2008 9:56:11 AM
From: Freedom Fighter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

KT, >Wayne, I agree that things may be reported weirdly in Cuba. I doubt they are reported like that in Switzerland and Sweden and France and the other First World countries that are beating us on longevity.< The premature stats may not be applicable to longevity beyond Cuba. But the other longevity stats are flawed in ways that John Stossel suggested. As I suggested right from the start, we aren't comparing apples to apples. >> I haven't had a decent health plan since the 1970s. Most were filled with deductibles, co-pays, maximums, etc. designed to bankrupt those who get seriously ill in America. I had the money to offset these things, but the average working joe does not.<< Thank God most insurance plans have deductibles, co-pays, etc... That's by design. It's an effort to bring some small level of market discipline to an out of control system. If every cent spent for healthcare came via a 3rd party payer (government or private), everyone would go to the doctor for every sneeze, test, procedure etc....that made any sense to them regardless of whether it provided good value for a dollar or not. Spending would mushroom wildly. If you tried to cap it via laws etc... there would be screams about the lack of healthcare choice, not to mention how badly government would screw things up. Affordability is obviously an issue, but if we didn't have co pays and deductibles we'd be in twice as much of a mess as we are now and be getting even worse "VALUE" for our health care dollars - even though we'd be getting MORE healthcare. This is exactly why I suggested we remove many minor things from private insurance. It would add further discipline to the system and reduce insurance costs for catastrophic events, expensive procedures, hospitalization, and the other things that EVERYONE NEEDs to be insured for on a large scale. Honestly, sometimes it's hard for me to imagine how badly idealism interferes with ones ability to think through very basic things.