[sunrico90]

One in four Florida residents younger than age 65 is uninsured, and the number of uninsured Florida residents of all ages increased by 38% over the past eight years, according to a report recently released by the Florida Health Insurance Advisory Board.

Is this the way to go:

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty and a panel he heads on Friday will consider whether to recommend to the state Legislature sweeping changes to reduce the number of uninsured residents. Recommendations could include mandating that college students show proof of health insurance, expanding the state's Healthy Kids program, creating a state-funded pilot program to fund insurance for low-income families, increasing the use of limited-benefits health insurance plans and allowing dependents to remain on their parents' insurance up to age 30.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by sunrico90

\
One in four Florida residents younger than age 65 is uninsured ...
Is this the way to go:... mandating that college students show proof of health insurance, expanding the state's Healthy Kids program, creating a state-funded pilot program to fund insurance for low-income families, increasing the use of limited-benefits health insurance plans and allowing dependents to remain on their parents' insurance up to age 30. [/b]

I don't like the idea of mandating people to buy health insurance: it does nothing to address the supply-side of the equation and it would only lead to even higher prices for health care.

We are supposed to live in a free-market economy, but the whole health care pricing scheme (scandal?) is brutally murky, especially in hospitals (I have been the victim of hospital price gouging, though a relatively mild case compared to some horror stories I've heard).

I would argue in favor of one of the two extremes:

either 1) full-fledged market solutions, including mandating hospitals to provide a published, understandable and fully visible price list up-front for every step of any service they propose to a patient, with no possibility of deviating upwards from the up-front agreed price, including all related services from outsourcers;

or 2) a single-payer system (i.e. the government, and the government only, pays for health care, not a impenetrably complex system of a myriad of insurance companies, government programs, and individuals).

In my view, all these other half-baked additions only complicate an already chaotic system for financing health care and, again, do nothing to address the supply side, introducing efficiency, and lowering costs.

In short, the problem is not throwing more money into the "system" to insure more people, the problem is coming up with a more efficient system for providing real health care to real humans when they really need it. These half-baked schemes will only be exploited for more financial abuse with no hope of establishing accountability.

If we give up on introducing efficiency, with a single-payer system we at least know whom to blame.

Finally, I believe some 46 million US residents are without health insurance. If we take a population of 300 million, that comes to about 15%, as compared to 25% you are reporting for Florida.

[Lilybeans]

I think whatever health insurance is available to members of Congress or local governments should be available to citizens at the exact same price. We should be able to get on those groups.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by sunrico90

One in four Florida residents younger than age 65 is uninsured, and the number of uninsured Florida residents of all ages increased by 38% over the past eight years, according to a report recently released by the Florida Health Insurance Advisory Board.

Is this the way to go:

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty and a panel he heads on Friday will consider whether to recommend to the state Legislature sweeping changes to reduce the number of uninsured residents. Recommendations could include mandating that college students show proof of health insurance, expanding the state's Healthy Kids program, creating a state-funded pilot program to fund insurance for low-income families, increasing the use of limited-benefits health insurance plans and allowing dependents to remain on their parents' insurance up to age 30.

That means 75% do. I am surprised it is that high. I would have guessed half.

[markhunt]

Originally Posted by Lilybeans

I think whatever health insurance is available to members of Congress or local governments should be available to citizens at the exact same price. We should be able to get on those groups.

I could not agree more.

[ladygentleheart1025]

One quarter of the population? You better up the ante on that one.....when it costs $250 for a blood test? who can afford that?

[bale002]

Originally Posted by macguy

That means 75% do. I am surprised it is that high. I would have guessed half.

Europe has 100%, in many cases at half the price (though Germany is at 3/4 the price), nevertheless the European health care system generates heavy debts too; it's a tough circle to square no matter how the financing is organized.

Face it, we'd all like to live a long time at low cost, but we just don't have the resources to deliver that to everyone, especially when many people do not live healthy lifestyles to begin with.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by bale002

Europe has 100%, in many cases at half the price (though Germany is at 3/4 the price), nevertheless the European health care system generates heavy debts too; it's a tough circle to square no matter how the financing is organized.

Face it, we'd all like to live a long time at low cost, but we just don't have the resources to deliver that to everyone, especially when many people do not live healthy lifestyles to begin with.

My wife's sister lives in Germany and the health care is marginal at best. You can wait forever for a treatment. Her nephew broke his leg badly and it didn't heal correctly. Forget followup therapy or anything. Their health care motto is, "Your better so thats good enough". The kid is half a cripple now because of the terrible care he got in Germany.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by macguy

My wife's sister lives in Germany and the health care is marginal at best. You can wait forever for a treatment. Her nephew broke his leg badly and it didn't heal correctly. Forget followup therapy or anything. Their health care motto is, "Your better so thats good enough". The kid is half a cripple now because of the terrible care he got in Germany.

There are success stories and horror stories in every country across the planet.

In the US, some doctors' poor conduct has led to the brutal deaths of some family members and some highly skilled doctors have prolonged the lives for the foreseeable future of others.

I had a horrible child birth experience right here in Florida, it may have been a disaster if not for the loving intervention of the least paid in the hospital chain (the doctors would have stuck knives into our hearts, God bless compassionate nurses, one even a student), and if there is a next time we will definitely go abroad.

Despite nationalistic propaganda (pretty much the same everywhere, just the language changes), the issue is not the quality of health care - it is poor, mediocre and excellent all at the same time all over the world, it all depends on the luck of the draw - the issue is how is the financing organized. The US has some serious problems in that respect.

[sunrico90]

Originally Posted by macguy

That means 75% do. I am surprised it is that high. I would have guessed half.

I was also surprised. Check the following site:NCHC | Facts About Healthcare - Health Insurance Cost