Reply #50: There is no point arguing about the impossible

[bfarq]

As you say, that is not the system we have here today. And I would point out even with Medicare, it isn't socialized medicine. Medicare doesn't employ a single doctor or nurse. Medicare doesn't have a single hospital bed or operating room.

And beyond that, most of Medicare processing is farmed out to PRIVATE companies. Remember, that's how Ross Perot made his first billion.

People are welcome to debate any irrelevancy that entertains them, but it ain't happening here any anybody's lifetime who can read this forum today.

What we need to do is to get our system FIXED. Nobody is clamoring for government run automotive insurance or government run life insurance. Why not?

1) There is fair competition and reasonable transparency in those industries. There are 20 companies I can go to for car insurance. There are probably 100 I could go to for life insurance if I wanted to buy some.

2) There is intense regulation with a real appreciation of how badly everyone can get hurt if these companies behave badly.

That's what is missing from private health insurance. And there isn't a damned thing in the Obama bill that addresses that. There are a few provisions that sound vaguely like they could on some other planet in some other eon maybe have some effect. But they all have huge loopholes, leaving the insurance companies essentially free to continue raping and pillaging. It is a damned shame that so many people invested so much time and energy only to get this kind of a half-assed effort from those we elected.