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

To: Lane3 who wrote (8159)	8/11/2009 7:46:17 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Did it ever occur to you that premiums are going up because they're having to pay out more because costs are going up more than the insurance companies can possibly put pressure to contain them? So you don't blame the insurance companies... OK by me. But of course they are raising premiums to maintain their profits. Exactly what I was saying. Because more stuff is being included in policies that wasn't previously covered either because states have mandated it or because customers demand it? Actually the opposite is happening... less coverage and bigger deductibles. Remember the vast majority of insurance is paid by employers... and they are cutting back. That insured people are demanding more health care services for a variety of reasons including getting older and fatter and crazier? That's a gross cost problem not a per capita problem. We face both... but when talking about the industry we need to focus on per capita. Indeed. What, pray tell, could the insurance companies have done to stop that? Listen Lane, the insurance companies didn't stop it. You like thought experiments, let's try this one. Imagine that there was no employment insurance benefit in this country; probably 80%+ of those insured. Everybody shops for health care... doctors, clinics, exams, hospitals, surgery. Sure there would be premium services, but there would also be really cheap services that would compete on price.... and of course some would offer better outcomes. The Dells and Walmarts... they drive down the price of good stuff. But we don't have that. We have employer provided insurance. The employer can't shop for the incrementally cheaper hospital, the employee doesn't care, he wants the best for his 'free' health care. Only the insurance company can do the shopping because they pay the bill. That has been a dismal failure. Why? I suggest that they can pretty much raise premiums without a resultant loss in business. So why would they aggresively reign in costs? If you can charge $50 with a 10% margin or charge $100 with a 10% margin, why charge $50? Once again, if you have some ideas on how insurance companies could "police" rising prices more than they do, please share. I don't think they have a dog in the fight. High medical costs are not putting them out of business... they continue to increase gross profits. Consumers, if they had to pay out of pocket, have a dog in the fight. Listen you have to agree that we need to reduce cost. You may not see the insurance companies as the villain... fine with me. But do you admit that they are not the solution? Can we meet somewhere in between?