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Lets discuss Mitten's statement about free market healthcare.
Well here is the question.
How can you possibly have "free market" healthcare insurance when you can't just hire and fire companies at will? The absolute core of having a truly competitive free market is that health insurance companies have to compete for your services.
But health insurance doesn't work like that. You can only shop around for health insurance while you're young, healthy, and unmarried with no kids. Once you start developing age-related health problems, and/or get married and have kids, you CANNOT shop around for health insurance like you would with a cell phone provider, car dealership, or where you choose to buy groceries. You are STUCK with your health insurance provider as you WILL NOT get covered because of "pre-existing conditions", or at best you will have to pay an unaffordable high premium to get coverage.
Basically, health insurance based on the free market only works on the young and healthy. Once you reach 35+ (or younger, or at birth, based on your genetics) it no longer works.
Can some conservatives tell me how I am wrong? Or what a free market based health insurance program is suppose to look like?
Well, the best way to have free market health insurance would be to end the connection between health insurance and employment. Make it to where employers do not provide or subsidize health insurance for employees.
As far as high risk people, maybe something similar to what is done for auto insurance (by STATES) should be done.
"Healthcare" and "health insurance" aren't the same thing, though given the perverse American systems for both I'm not surprised that you don't know the difference.
We went on a high deductible plan last year. We had to pay the first $5,000 out of pocket and then our insurance kicked in. Family of 5, 3 with asthma, 2 with severe allergies who got weekly allergy shots. We have 4 monthly prescriptions.
Even with weekly allergy shots, 3 asthma attacks, one ER visit, 6 specialist visits, and a 10 day virus that required 3 doctor's visits and a host of tests, we didn't go over our $5,000.
We spent right at $4,800.
Having a high deductible made us take charge of our healthcare. We changed our all our prescriptions to a cheaper pharmacy. We figured out hospital costs and which antibiotics were free at different stores before anyone got sick, and I kept the list with me. If a doctor talked to us about having a test done, I disccussed the fees and benefits before we had it done. I made sure every doctor we saw understood we were paying for everything out of pocket so they kept that in mind when ordering tests and prescriptions. And if we got a prescription that was more than $50, I would always call and talk about other options.
It's amazing how much health care you can afford when you take charge of it yourself. And had something catastrophic happened, our insurance would have covered us from major expense.
We went on a high deductible plan last year. We had to pay the first $5,000 out of pocket and then our insurance kicked in. Family of 5, 3 with asthma, 2 with severe allergies who got weekly allergy shots. We have 4 monthly prescriptions.
Even with weekly allergy shots, 3 asthma attacks, one ER visit, 6 specialist visits, and a 10 day virus that required 3 doctor's visits and a host of tests, we didn't go over our $5,000.
We spent right at $4,800.
Having a high deductible made us take charge of our healthcare. We changed our all our prescriptions to a cheaper pharmacy. We figured out hospital costs and which antibiotics were free at different stores before anyone got sick, and I kept the list with me. If a doctor talked to us about having a test done, I disccussed the fees and benefits before we had it done. I made sure every doctor we saw understood we were paying for everything out of pocket so they kept that in mind when ordering tests and prescriptions. And if we got a prescription that was more than $50, I would always call and talk about other options.
It's amazing how much health care you can afford when you take charge of it yourself. And had something catastrophic happened, our insurance would have covered us from major expense.
But Liberals would respond that people, particularly older people, are too stupid to do what you did. That's why they need government to provide them with a one-size-fits-all health insurance.
"Healthcare" and "health insurance" aren't the same thing, though given the perverse American systems for both I'm not surprised that you don't know the difference.
In this day and age it is. You cannot afford healthCARE without health insurance..sometimes not even a doctor visit.
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