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do you bill your insurance company for oil changes or other maintenance and repairs to your car? do you send teh insurance company the bill for new tires you put on your car? no you dont. you pay these things out of pocket. that gives you the opportunity to shop around and make the best deal you can to save money.
the same thing can be done with medical care as well. for instance, if your doctor prescribes antibiotics for an infection, you are not going to be taking them long term, and thus you can pay for them out of pocket rather than send the bill to the insurance. you could also deal with the doctor to get a more favorable rate for doctors visits. if you know the price of things, you can shop around and get the best deal you can make, and save money in the long run. that includes saving money on the cost of health insurance.
So freaking what? I have worked in immunization programs for years, public and private. There is plenty of evidence if the immunizations are covered, people are more likely to get them, and in a timely manner. This is the philosophy behind HMOs. An analogous example, sort of, is changing the oil in your car-preventive maintenance. The difference is that you can replace your car if you don't take care of it, but you can't replace your body. There is a lot of evidence that people are more likely to follow the doctor's plan, e.g. take the antibiotics, if they can afford them. Comparisons with car insurance, homeowner's insurance, etc, are just not appropriate.
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as with auto insurance, once insurance companies were allowed to sell across state lines, and there were a large number of insurance companies selling auto insurance in the states, the price of auto insurance dropped substantially. the same thing would happen with health insurance as well. we have had this discussion before. more competition is always good for the market place.
I'd like to see some evidence for the first statement, and your evidence that the same would happen with health ins. As it is now, the HI companies have all figured out how to do business in "the several states"; they figured out ways around the rules.
I'd like to see some evidence for the first statement, and your evidence that the same would happen with health ins. As it is now, the HI companies have all figured out how to do business in "the several states"; they figured out ways around the rules.
true, they do it by having duplicate corporations. in the past you had state farm of arizona, state farm of new mexico, state farm of alabama, etc. now rather than having 50 corporate offices, there is one corporate office, and few regional offices, and lower costs for running the auto insurance portion of the company. that means that rates can be made lower.
the same thing would in fact happen with health insurance as well.
true, they do it by having duplicate corporations. in the past you had state farm of arizona, state farm of new mexico, state farm of alabama, etc. now rather than having 50 corporate offices, there is one corporate office, and few regional offices, and lower costs for running the auto insurance portion of the company. that means that rates can be made lower.
the same thing would in fact happen with health insurance as well.
In fact, it does happen with health insurance, e.g. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of (insert name of sate). Many times now when I call an insurance company e.g. Aetna, Cigna, etc, I'm talking to someone out of state.I doubt one corporate office would lower costs significantly. I'm not sure why the RW is so hep on this idea, frankly.
The Bush Medicare bill did nothing to bring the insane costs of prescription drugs under control, prohibits reimportation of much cheaper drugs from Canada, etc. It was a wholesale giveaway to the drug companies. This is what is bankrupting the program. Most of the Medicare funds are squandered to pay for ridiculously overpriced drugs.
In fact, it does happen with health insurance, e.g. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of (insert name of sate). Many times now when I call an insurance company e.g. Aetna, Cigna, etc, I'm talking to someone out of state.I doubt one corporate office would lower costs significantly. I'm not sure why the RW is so hep on this idea, frankly.
Note the Kaiser organization operates in 9 states.
you are calling a regional call center. not uncommon with many companies. be fortunate that your health insurance company didnt put their call center in india. that doesnt mean that blue cross/blue shield has one corporate offie though, they have several, one for each state.
you are calling a regional call center. not uncommon with many companies. be fortunate that your health insurance company didnt put their call center in india. that doesnt mean that blue cross/blue shield has one corporate offie though, they have several, one for each state.
If they had one corporate office in the US, they'd have all these sub-offices with their own administrators, staff, etc. It wouldn't save a dime, IMO.
I'm talking about the calls I have to make at work. For all I know, I might be calling India. Wherever I call, I frequently get people who don't speak English as a first language, which makes it difficult when talking about health care.
The best thing that could ever happen to boost small businesses and entrepreneurship in the United States would would be to untether health insurance from employment. Not having to worry about health insurance would create opportunities for start-ups on a scale never seen in this country. And that's sadly why it's likely to never happen.
That's why pro-business conservatives should be all over either single payer, or some new model based upon the German, French or Swiss systems. But that would be "European," and "Socialist," and the reason why we can't have nice things.
this is a false statement. under single-payer, the government does NOT run the healthcare system. healthcare is run by and provided by the private sector. the govt pays for your treatment, it doesn't provide it. hence the term single-payer.
like medicare in the US. medicare is a form of single-payer.
NOPE MEDICARE IS NOT SINGLEPAYER
if it was the INDIVIDUAL would not be required to purchase a supplemental insurace
single payer would be fine...if liberals could ever answer one question..........................HOW WOULD YOU PAY FOR IT
single payer would cost at best 2.5 trillion a year, to as much as 6 trillion a year......that would be 25,000 to 65,000 dollars PER TAX PAYER...every year
Still, a lot of conservatives believe pretty strongly in health care through bankruptcy as a means to assure them that the government stays the hell away from paying for some one else's medical care.
"Paying for someone else's medical care" is exactly what the USFG does, right now.
if it was the INDIVIDUAL would not be required to purchase a supplemental insurace
single payer would be fine...if liberals could ever answer one question..........................HOW WOULD YOU PAY FOR IT
single payer would cost at best 2.5 trillion a year, to as much as 6 trillion a year......that would be 25,000 to 65,000 dollars PER TAX PAYER...every year
You make that post every time Here is one way to pay for it:
Take all the money spent on health care today, and use half of it.
You could take the tax money the government spends on health care today, and have a couple of hundred billion left over. Single payer would cost about 1,3 trillion. Or you could run a German type system and use all the money spent on private insurance today, and have a few hundred billion left over.
Remember, the most expensive people to cover are the over-65s. Mediacre pays for them. Then there are the second most expensive, people who are too ill to work. Also on government health care through medicaid. Next, veterans with war wounds. Enjoying government health care courtesy of VA. And last all the people healthy enbough to work. Who pays for everyone else.
The cheapest group to insure, and the only ones who are left. And are paying for everyone else.
Today, America pays 2. 5 trillion dollars per year for health care. Single payer runs at half that. Without the economics of scale that America enjoys. That is two military budgets worth of money wasted each year.
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Here is one way to pay for it: 
