Americans need an intervention in health care

[Joanne98]

The most popular religion in America isn't Christianity, as most of us have been taught to believe. The most cherished belief system celebrates the principles of unfettered capitalism.

That misplaced faith in free markets was on display in Thursday's health-care summit, when - between sound bites and talking points - Republicans argued that "choice and competition" would largely resolve the country's health-care problems. That belief - that the arbitrary, confusing, and consumer-unfriendly policies and practices we euphemistically call a health-care "system" can be transformed by relying on free-market principles - is confounding.

Except for beneficiaries of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Affairs system - all government-run insurance programs - those of us who have insurance are utterly reliant on the private market. That's what got us into the mess we're in.

The health-care market simply doesn't operate like the market for cars, or computers, or flat-screen TVs. Sony and Samsung make their profits by selling as many of their products as they can. Health-insurance companies make their profits by selling as many of their products as they can and then trying hard not to deliver them.

Try to imagine that you're awaiting delivery of your new 50-inch TV, for which you've already made a hefty down payment. But the company calls to tell you that you violated some obscure clause in your contract, so it won't be delivered. In the health insurance world, it's called "recision." Insurers decide they won't honor the contract because of some alleged violation by the policyholder.

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http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/85752502.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Wow! How'd THIS get into the newly-conservative Inky????? nt

[maryf]

2. "Health-insurance companies make their profits

by selling as many of their products as they can and then trying hard not to deliver them." In a nutshell...great piece, K&R

[dkf]

3. Finally someone trying to expose the scam.

"So, it seems, the company tells you that a policy offers broad coverage when it's trying to get you to buy insurance. But when you need the coverage, you find out the policy doesn't offer broad coverage after all. That helps explain why so many people, even those with health insurance, go bankrupt after a costly illness.

Without stricter government oversight and regulation - which is the essence of the health-care reform that President Obama has proposed - health-care costs will continue to soar while consumers get less and less. Obama's proposals don't represent a "government takeover," as critics contend. The vast majority of Americans would still get their insurance in the private marketplace. But insurers would have to live by a different set of rules."

I contend that I haven't seen enough from Obama on oversight. They need to go much farther to create fairness in an industry that has profited for years by cheating people out of what they have been promised. Only the most egregious aspects have been considered, like recission, preexisting conditions or lifetime caps. The rest of the system as far as I can tell is intact and ready to be abused at will.

[SlingBlade]

4. The Republican position chases Ayn Rand, The Democratic ...

Position chases the Republican position. Corporate whoredom is alive and well in D.C

The Warning ...
The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway. Not unlike his predecessors from Reagan to Clinton to Bush.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning /

[Dr.Phool]

5. Capitalism: Just another dangerous superstition.