Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

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

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (130496)	2/8/2010 6:22:31 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 541957

You can throw around "efficient" but there are a lot of questions about that word. Efficient for whom? Efficiency in what way? Our system is getting pretty efficient at denying people care. That's certainly an efficiency the insurance companies have concentrated on. Getting you the best care at the best price? They don't care so much about that. It seems to me that the system is designed, for the most part, to keep care minimal, and to deny as many claims as possible, to squeeze doctors (for the benefit of the insurance companies), and to create an efficient way to bully doctors in to prescribing what the insurance companies want them to prescribe, and to do the sorts of procedures the insurance companies least hate. That system may be efficient for insurance companies, but it's not so great for anyone else.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (130496)	2/8/2010 8:38:35 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541957

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. The health care insurance industry (at least for the part of its work that's providing insurance against serious risks), is like any other insurance industry, in the business of managing and spreading risk, not actually providing medical care. There probably isn't a massive amount of innovation in this any more, the basic principles are rather old now, there might be some minor tweaking of them every now and then, and they do improve ways of processing and handling data and such, but your right its not a real center for dynamic innovation. But that doesn't mean its no providing a service. Spreading and managing risk is a service, often an important one. They spend enormous amounts of money competing against each other. The extent they are seriously competing against each other, is the only thing that makes them care about providing half way decent service, or containing the prices they charge at all. I wouldn't look for less competition with eagerness. but above all else: they spend their money most effectively lobbying congress Sure they spend some that way, but its not a significant part of their revenue. In fact at least generally with companies and I think (but am not 100% certain) also with health insurance companies the lobbying is surprisingly light considering how much government decisions affect profitability. With all the money and all the decisions to favor special interests tossed around by congress you would think they would pay a lot more to aggressively rent seek, and with all the extra costs government policies can create you would think they would spend more on defensive lobbying. I can only guess there are diminishing returns to continuing to spend more and more on lobbying, otherwise we would probably be seeing a lot more of it.