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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (130492)	2/8/2010 6:07:54 PM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541957

<<<Why not, it makes most other things more efficient. >>> I will agree that competition is needed to drive innovation and by being efficient it helps companies to stay alive and be able to compete. But just do the math. The health care insurance industry, in the way it is currently structured, is nothing but a cost center. Show me the innovation. Show me where they create efficencies. They spend enormous amounts of money competing against each other. Money is spent on marketing, sales, executive compensations and bonuses, proprietary computer systems, G&A overhead but above all else: they spend their money most effectively lobbying congress. My sense is they have more lobbyists than there are elected representatives. The system is broken.

To: TimF who wrote (130492)	2/8/2010 7:28:20 PM
From: Jeff Hayden	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541957

"There is no way possible for a profit incentive to make the system more efficient. " Why not, it makes most other things more efficient. Most? I know of very few examples of military spending being made cheaper and better by competition. Witness the paucity of military acquisition programs that don't overrun by 30% to multiple doublings and still don't work and are cancelled. The advantage of insurance company competition in providing health care is not obvious to anyone. Have you any examples of competition helping in providing health care?