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

To: RetiredNow who wrote (550301)	2/16/2010 1:06:32 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1586540

"I believe the health care industry can be completely private, operating within a strict regulatory structure that ensures competition and minimizes abuses." Believe it or not, that describes the French health care system, judged the best in the world by the WHO. It also has a "public option" for those that can't afford private insurance, but the vast majority of French folk have private insurance, which all offer pretty much the same coverage, with slight differences.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (550301)	2/16/2010 1:37:44 PM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1586540

I don't buy that. I believe the health care industry can be completely private,... It is (with the exception of the VA)...I think you are confusing health care with health insurance. I'd prefer the government not mandate coverage, because I believe a truly free market will drive benefits higher and costs lower in such a way as more individuals and families will choose coverage. You need to start with the precept that the national health care (not health insurance) is a zero sum cost. In other words, it takes XXX$$ to provide Americans with health care. Those dollars include the cost of the uninsured/underinsured. If, as I do, you also have health insurance, your premium pays for a portion of the costs of those people who do not, including those who can't afford it or those who game the system. The trick is to find the most economical path that reduces those costs (regulatory or otherwise) and distribute the costs equitably. GOPers keep talking about insurance competing across state lines...but that's another nibble at the fringes proposal. Imagine that you live in Maryland but buy insurance in NY...so what? The provider structure (doctors, hospitals, etc..), and therefore the cost base, is still in Maryland. Al