Do We Need Health Insurance?

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.truth-out.org/do-we-need-health-insurance/1325700116

Do Americans need health insurance? The short answer is no — at least not in the form it currently exists in America.

The purpose of health care financing systems should be — and is in all other wealthy countries — to facilitate the delivery of health care services, to protect individuals and families against huge medical care expenses and to avoid breaking the national bank while they do so. But in America, our private insurance system actually interferes with the delivery of health care and is rapidly becoming too expensive.

Private health insurance was dominated by nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans until about 1990. That changed when Blue Cross plans across the country began to convert to for-profit status, arguing that it would improve their efficiency. Maine Blue Cross made that transition in 2000 when it changed from a company whose mission was facilitating health care to one whose mission was maximizing shareholder wealth.

What is the problem with this picture? It is not that for-profit insurance companies are failing in their mission. In fact, they are doing a very good job of exactly what their mission demands, maximizing the wealth of shareholders. The problem is that their mission fundamentally conflicts with the mission of a decent health care system.

[Angry Dragon]

1. kick

[DirkGently]

2. Healthcare is incompatible with the profit motive. Like education, police, fire, prisons, military.

You can't run something intended to provide the maximum benefit to people *at all costs* while simultaneously trying to make the most money possible, which by definition means trying to charge the most while giving the least.

Profit is exploitation. A little is fine. A lot can be okay if it doesn't matter whether everyone can participate. We'll be okay if the platinum-plated iPhone case people overcharge. We can walk away.

But you can't make it the mission of someone providing essential, life-and-death services intended to be provided to everyone, to put profit first, because there's no end to the profit motive. The for-profit model doesn't allow for saying "We're making enough, let's not charge any more. Let's improve the bargain for the customer instead of for ourselves."

We have a big problem with religious fanaticism in America. And the main religion is greed.

[Myrina]

3. +100

Well stated.

[BobbyBoring]

4. Amen to that

Combined with the attitude of some of these nut jobs, like "it's gods will if you got cancer", we're screwed.

I think BC/BS is trying to get rid of my S/O as she costs them a small fortune in spite of the 11K a year for just her premiums. If that happens, we're in deep shit~

[freshwest]

7. Thanks! Can't be said often enough!!!

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sinkingfeeling.

[SheilaT]

6. There was a time when

nearly all the hospitals in this country were not for profit. I can recall something of a debate going on in the 1960's when for-profit hospitals were coming into existence. Most people seem to have no idea that not-for-profit hospitals ever existed, nor that there was a common feeling that for-profit ones shouldn't happen.

Absolutely health care should be completely not for profit.

[TBF]

8. I agree - we don't need health insurance. What we need is single payer healthcare for all. nt

[City Lights]

9. Caper does a great job of explaining what's wrong

with having our health care attached to the for-profit health insurance industry.

The problem is that their mission fundamentally conflicts with the mission of a decent health care system.

Thanks for posting.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I went without health insurance for a year

after the insurance I had ($5000 a year deductible plus 20% copay after that) not only failed to cover an injury that I suffered but had premiums that made it hard for me to pay my medical bills.

Then I inherited some money--not enough to make me rich, but enough to serve as a cushion and maybe allow a few "treats" each year--and my financial advisor told me to get some sort of minimal insurance so that possible medical bills wouldn't eat up the whole sum.

I now have a $10,000 deductible policy with affordable premiums. Unlike my previous coverage, it covers 100% after the deductible.

But I'd much rather have single payer or national health service or a combination of the two.

[bvar22]

11. Private Health Insurance Corporations are a 100% Parasitic Drain on our National Resources.

*They manufacture NOTHING

*They provide NO "service".

*They create NO Wealth (Value Added).

...they add NOTHING to our nation.
Every single dollar that goes into their pockets is a Dollar Wasted.
Private Health Insurance Corporations should Never, EVER see a single dollar of Taxpayer money,
but in 2014, the floodgates for BILLIONS in wasted Public Money WILL be Wide Open.

”In a Thursday interview, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel argued that... business leaders should be grateful that... the overhaul of health care preserved the private delivery system..."

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B2F85DDF-18FE-70B2-A835FE1E7FA8D74C

Thanks, Rahm,
you creepy little vampire.



You will know them by their WORKS.

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[yurbud]

12. it should be self-evident that delivering health care conflicts with maximizing profit

But it's hard to see the self-evident when you're a pol counting the cash the insurance companies give you now, and counting on the job as a lobbyist, CEO, or board member they'll give you later.