Did You Know This Shocking Way That We're Behind Much Of The World?

[oldernwiser]

32. Really???

Sorry, but I have to take issue with you here. First, insurance companies have nothing to do with setting costs. They are the agents we have set up in order to pool our funds together and have the "social medicine" that Rush Limbaugh likes to prattle on about. Premiums are expensive for 2 reasons - health providers are charging more for their services, and not enough healthy individuals are subscribing. Simple as that. State law sets the rates for premiums which pretty much blows up the lack of competition argument. State law also prohibits health insurance companies from making a profit on premiums. It is in the insurance company's best interest to keep premiums as low as possible in order to retain subscribers. Any cash the insurers get comes from an administrative fee which is regulated by the state's insurance commissioner.

Second, competition would do next to nothing to keep a hospital's rates down. As it stands, private hospitals are indeed for-profit business ventures. However, public hospitals are mandated by law to accept patients regardless of their ability to pay. This means that when people visit the emergency room because they can't afford insurance or a regular doctor, those of us who have the ability to pay - either out of our pockets or through insurance - have to pick up the slack and pay a share of that burden. Loss of revenue causes loss of employment, just ask a nurse. Enough loss can cause a trauma center to close and shift it's patients to another - public - hospital causing MAJOR delays in treatment.

Business is business in both public and private hospitals. We pay for their payroll in both cases, but a private hospital has the luxury of requiring payment before service is rendered and only in this case does competition enter into the rates.