Wednesday, October 14, 2009
This Week In Hopelessness
This American Life this week is about healthcare. In a surprising, and quite entertaining, way, they discuss the past, present, and future of health care-arguing, essentially, that even if health reform passes, it won't work, because no one-patients, providers, or insurance companies-really wants to lower costs.
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Wow you are up and posting early!
ReplyDeleteThis post made me think that there are always two sides on these things -- the enlightened and the selfish. Who is who just depends on which side you are on. =)
Needless to say, I would like to think that I'm somewhere in the middle. Hopefully a little more to the enlightened end of the spectrum.
I think the saddest thing about this whole health care debacle is that people are so afraid of change.
Meanwhile, it's open enrollment time again. The Cigna EPO that I have (had) is going to be eliminated. So with my allergies and asthma and my daughter with allergies and all the wellness visits -- I get to pay an increase because I have to cover my husband (whose company can't get insurance b/c of an employee who is a cancer survivor) and I have to pick a plan with less coverage and a higher deductible.
As it is, a third of my pay goes to my insurance premiums.
Something has to change.
Your new healthcare system works fine over here in the UK :-)
ReplyDeleteLapis: Allowing competition would be a great change, really. How many insurance companies can you choose from right now? Not many.
ReplyDeleteBut if the barriers to competition were taken down, you would have from scores to hundreds of them competing for your business. Lots of "Geicos" type companies competing for your business from coast to coast. That's the kind of thing that lowers insurance premiums, a lot.
On the other end, would you rather pay nothing in insurance premiums, under a government insurance plan that is costing many trillions of dollars in increased debt spending? Is that truly "free" ?
The government is going to spend trillions on healthcare anyway. Why not spend it to actually cover everybody?
ReplyDeleteBut as we've discussed, that's not happening any time soon.
Plentymorefish-you have government run healthcare that is phenomenally popular. Care to enlighten us?
Michael: Why cover everybody? Why not just cover the needy, indigent, disabled, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhy give away free government healthcare to the rich?
I like welfare programs, but I want all of them means-tested.
No one is giving free healthcare to anyone. That's a canard.
ReplyDeleteIt's reality, actually.
ReplyDeleteElaborating: Sure, the government promises free healthcare to everyone when you have the doomsday solution of "single payer" and all of that. But it is never free, really (as maybe you are hinting) because we all have to pay taxes for it.
ReplyDelete