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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (381772)	4/30/2008 10:27:21 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574490

The problem with every individual picking their plan, though, is that mass customization costs alot of money. We'd all pay for the insurers giving us lots of choices. You're talking about insurance plans, not building furniture. All plans have a sufficient membership to insure that administration costs are minimized. If you take a huge insurer, such as BCBS in any given state, they may have 20, even 50 non-group plans -- but they are all administered in a reasonably standardized manner according to the same claims manuals and regulation. If someone changes a deductible or excludes a particular coverage, it doesn't increase the administration cost materially. Systems are all, ALL set up to handle this. All the plans are processed through the same EDI systems, eligibility and response is processed through the same systems, etc. YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT INEFFICIENCY? You still, today, cannot file a Medicare claim via the Internet. They must be filed via 56k modems. That's right. Our local Medicare intermediary moved from bisync to async in 1988, and 20 years later claims submitted to Medicare are still going async. Why? Because the GOVERNMENT is worried about whether they can do Internet securely. The IRS can accept tax returns, banks can handle transactions, and all other insurance claims can go by Internet, but no, NOT Medicare government claims. That's what you're up against. The Medicare enrollment process for a new provider right now is taking 6 months. And you want to turn health care over to these idiots?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (381772)	5/1/2008 1:43:56 AM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574490

mindmeld, I agree, but we're a long way from that. The problem with every individual picking their plan, though, is that mass customization costs alot of money. We'd all pay for the insurers giving us lots of choices. Standardization lowers costs. Dell Computers is a testament to that. Collective bargaining lowers costs. Wal-Mart is a testament to that. And of course their is some cost to customization. It would be far cheaper to have one food factory and feed every citizen the same (soylent?). But I can't stand the taste of celery, and I know someone who gets a violent reaction to peanuts. Correct diagnosis and treatment is one gigantic case of customization. Sometimes conventional medicine does not have an answer and one has to outside to alternative providers. The more you enable this, the potential is that people will be healthier or cured. The more you stifle the system with "standardization" the worse off we will be. The bottom line is that the healthier people are, the less health care they need. Your standardization is certainly not going to produce healthy population. Quite the opposite. Joe