World is Falling Apart Thread (Locked forever)

[prfsnl_gmr]

EDIT: If I were designing a "free market" approach to our health care system, I would: (1) make the insurance market more competitive by allowing insurers to market and sell across state lines;

This first point is a red herring. It changes very little.

It wouldn't hurt anything, though, and then you could at least tell critics of healthcare reforms efforts that you've done it. (BTW, I would very much prefer a more socialized health care system, i.e., subsidized basic services and catastrophic care with private insurance for people who want "concierge" or "luxury" health care services. I think that is where we have to head at some point if we don't want to go bankrupt.)

[Sarge]

The new bill is not good. It's more of a "let's keep parts of the ACA and add our own spin to it".

I still think much of our problem is how we treat insurance in the first place. We should not be using it for routine care.

[MrPopo]

I still think much of our problem is how we treat insurance in the first place. We should not be using it for routine care.

So much this. Routine care should be like an oil change; affordable and not paid for by insurance. Insurance should be for when things go really wrong. As it stands now insurance pays out a ton of money on routine things and that raises the costs across the board.

[marurun]

But what is routine and what isn't?

Having a baby is very expensive, but it's also very routine. Some people do it many many times over their lives. Unless we actually address the fundamentally high costs of health care, it doesn't matter whether insurance in comprehensive or catastrophic. And it should be noted that most nationalized health care is comprehensive and works just fine for the country's citizens: health outcomes improve and costs stay low.

So if the US is somehow to resist the pressure to nationalize heath care, the question then becomes, what fundamental changes need to take place in the law in order for health care to become more affordable?

[prfsnl_gmr]

So if the US is somehow to resist the pressure to nationalize heath care, the question then becomes, what fundamental changes need to take place in the law in order for health care to become more affordable?

Selling insurance across state lines is a panacea that will cure all of the issues with both our health care system and tax code. It will also retroactively add a save system to every original Blaster Master cart.

[MrPopo]

So if the US is somehow to resist the pressure to nationalize heath care, the question then becomes, what fundamental changes need to take place in the law in order for health care to become more affordable?

I think that's the question that needs to be answered, and I think it would require someone with access to the books at a hospital to see where the hell all the money is going. Maybe one answer is to subsidize equipping hospitals (e.g. the government buys MRIs for all hospitals of a certain size). But without really knowing what your bill pays for it's hard to say how we can drive down the cost of healthcare.

[Sarge]

I believe you have to find a way to inject market forces into the system. As it stands, people don't even really think about how much their care costs because they rely on insurance to pay for it (once you get past the ever-increasing deductibles, of course). This, of course, gives the doctors and hospitals free rein to charge exorbitant prices for their services, since the consumer isn't footing the bill, the insurance company is. And the insurance company certainly isn't going to swallow that cost, so it gets passed right on to the consumer. So we're pretty much screwed whichever way we go about it.

The only solution I can see is to change the way we approach health care in the first place. Convince people that all they need is catastrophic care, and that it's cheaper in the long run to pay for routine (yes, we can banter about what "routine" is, but clearly, lower-cost preventative maintenance is what would fall under this umbrella) care out of pocket.

The insurance industry would have to shrink a bit, and they won't like that. It's a nice little sleight of hand that they've convinced everyone that they have to have comprehensive health insurance when financially, it makes no sense for most people.

(Also contributing to this is the fact that employers offer insurance as well. I have a plan through my employer. I'd probably rather not have one, and obtain my own and get a requisite pay increase to offset the fact that it's not being provided for me.)

So if the US is somehow to resist the pressure to nationalize heath care, the question then becomes, what fundamental changes need to take place in the law in order for health care to become more affordable?

Selling insurance across state lines is a panacea that will cure all of the issues with both our health care system and tax code. It will also retroactively add a save system to every original Blaster Master cart.

I'm on board! Where do I sign up?!

[Ack]

Well, allowing Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate prices on pharmaceuticals would certainly be a step in the right direction I would think.

[marurun]

Well, one thing Democrats have traditionally resisted that could help is tort reform. Malpractice insurance is damned expensive. But it is very difficult to reform tort law in a way that preserves the right of harmed parties to be made right (or as right as is possible) AND protects practicing entities against abusive lawsuits and irrational judgments. And tort reform would obviously affect far more than health care. If this balance were simple it would have been done already. And I would only support tort reform at this point if laws were also passed making it illegal to force parties into arbitration agreements. Arbitration must always be optional.

[Sarge]

Yeah, tort reform is tough. I've got a friend of mine that is an OBGYN, and his insurance is absolutely ridiculous. Finding that balance point is tricky, just like all of the health care debate is. I don't think we're going to ever find a "perfect" solution.