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Location: Moose Jaw, in between the Moose's butt and nose.
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A quote from Thomas Sowell. While I for sure think that pretty good health care, were 98% of people are covered is better than great health care where only 75% of the people are at least somewhat covered (meaning if they are, they still have deductibles and co pays that can send them to the poor house anyway), his quote had me think about the cost of paying doctors, etc. Here it is:
It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.
I can tell you what I think of Sowell, but that's besides the point.
Again, fellow progressives, chime in please.
Cons and Repubs, please continue to the next thread.
It is rather amusing for someone who associated fascism with Obama, be himself a believer in private enterprise working in the best interests of the people. It is why he deliberately quotes government bureaucracy as an added cost, but refrains from including private corporations adding costs. But, for my point, I don't need that, so here it goes.
I agree that the ideal health care system would include exclusion of the middle man, private or public, and be a process exclusively between the patient and the doctors/hospitals. In fact, I have seen this in practice, in person, outside of the USA and true competition exists, keeping the prices low. Insurance shows up as a business opportunity, mostly for wants and for catastrophic coverage only.
Unfortunately, it will remain a pipe-dream in the USA for a reason: ignorance and denial around price control practices by corporations. The market system in the USA favors large players. These large players often combine, or at least collude in pricing, to draw smaller players out much less individuals' ability to have any control. The result: Higher health care costs. It creates a natural dependency on buying their products over choosing not to. I think it was from Kaiser Family Foundation study from a few years ago, that I wish to find again, which pointed at this issue, and also at the fact that larger companies can (and do) put pressure on doctors and hospitals to charge differently. The greater the number of patients they direct to them, the greater say they have on the subject. There may be a solution towards this effect, but it will have to be on the grounds of transparency on pricing of services. If a person visits a doctor for treatment, how often do they know about cost of service...
1- When paying cash? Versus...
2- When using a smaller insurance company at the same provider? Versus...
3- When using a large insurance company at the same provider?
And what implications hold for a provider who maintains identical standards for all of them? This is also true of pharmaceuticals.
Same old conservative tripe about how the government can't run anything. But at least they (the government) should actually be "running" Obamacare to get accused of that. If we go to single payer then the RWNs can complain all they want..
The actual nuts and bolts of the system aren't really changing in regards to who is actually administering and paying for care.
It is so ridiculous that these people actually ADVOCATED this system back in 1994 when ClintonCare was on the table and are running a candidate that IMPLEMENTED this basic system when he was a sitting governor.
All this hand wringing will slowly subside when there isn't much change in how things work except there will be more people in the health insurance pool.
Hopefully by then the RWNs will figure out that ObamaCare is REALLY a secret way to confiscate their guns.
In theory, more people in the system should reduce costs.
But the GOP and Obama agreed to write into the law specific rules which forbid the government from using it's buying leverage to negotiate with health care providers for lower costs.
This bill only expanded health care coverage which is a good thing in itself, but no corporations made any sacrifice, nor was their any reasonable patient care rationing.
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