08-01-2017, 06:54 PM
(08-01-2017, 04:19 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:(08-01-2017, 09:24 AM)David Horn Wrote: I heard Jeff Flake saying much the same on Morning Joe this morning. The only problem: it's totally unworkable. Once mandates are removed, the healthy young avoid insurance, or buy something so thin that it's of little value.
The mandates aren't saving the PPACA. Premiums are skyrocketing; insurers are withdrawing right and left. Let's face it: the PPACA is totally unworkable with or without the mandates. So why drag everyone down with it?
The mandates made the Obamacare system worked, which it did in those red states that cut off their own funds by rejecting medicaid funding.
Quote:Of course health care is needed. Unless you want to go back to medieval times. What isn't needed is the free market medical system. The free market provides incentives for doctors and insurance companies to charge whatever the market will bear. Result: sky-high costs and bad service. If insurance is governed in a single-payer or national system, then overcharging and over-treatment can be regulated. Sarah Palin might object and call this "death panels," but the fact is that Medicare works and keeps costs down because of its pricing power in the market and its ability to approve or disapprove treatments. Private insurance provides a motive of greed to the insurance companies, who over-charge.Quote:Those needing insurance then see their insurance costs go through the roof, because the heath care system, as opposed to the insurance market, still eats 18% of GDP. The money doesn't just rain down from heaven.
The reason it's so expensive isn't because it's needed. It's because third party payer causes prices to skyrocket, because there is no one to make a tradeoff between costs and benefits. As a result, the medical system - as opposed to health - has a strong incentive to use the most expensive treatments possible, and a strong disincentive to keep people healthy, since healthy people consumer little in the way of medical care. More here:
Quote:Quote:If it's OK with you that the not-quite-elderly are left to die so the young can have shit jobs, then I guess it works at that level.
I myself am in the "not-quite-elderly" category, so I have a strong incentive to give us the best system. However, the best system is not one that makes us sick and then gives us expensive, counterproductive medical care by bankrupting the next generation.
Social insurance means we all pay into the system, so that it's there when we need it. So all generations need to contribute. When they don't, that's when health care systems go bankrupt. And we get what we had before Obamacare: a system that throws people off insurance, provides insurance that won't cover your illness, charges too much money, etc.
Quote:The best system is one that keeps us healthy. That involves better diet and lifestyle, not more medical care. The more money you throw at the medical system, the worse it gets.
The Republicans wanted to cut out preventive care from the system. I agree about what keeps us healthy, at least much of the time, but just telling people that won't make much difference. And older people have health problems anyway. The health care system needs to support doctors and professionals who also provide holistic services and diet/lifestyle advice.