wistahpatsfan

I can tell you haven't had to purchase health insurance lately.

I pay $1200 per month for a family plan. It's very good and I could pay less, but that's still a lot for what we use it for. I think I'm like a lot of Americans who use health insurance very little.

Insurance companies are making a killing on all fronts because they are incestuous with the hospitals and the doctor groups. The money source is the government (us) and the private payers (individuals and employers). The money gets processed by the insurance companies who take their cut, goes down to the hospitals and medical practice groups who take their cut, and finally down to the doctors, sup[port staff, pharma (who get their cuts at multiple levels), and hardware suppliers. The insurance companies then jump in again and take more from the doctors in the form of malpractice insurance, which leads us back to the lawyers, of course.

Don't tell me that the "system" we have in place is working. It needs to be blown up starting with insurance companies. They are not needed, but have built themselves defenses and mechanisms that keep them perpetually involved yet unnecessary.

I haven't even touched on the dynamic of compensation for doctors based on procedures as opposed to the health of their patients.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

DarrylS

Tort reform is a right wing buzz word, while in reality it is a state's rights issue... that is where the reform is needed. Just more gobbly gook to confuse the issue... if there was a suggestion for Tort Reform from Obama, then a right wing shyt storm would ensue, as he is some how trampling on state's rights..

__________________
"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

wistahpatsfan

That's true. I didn't think of that.

How easy would it be for states to pass Tort reform? Not very, I'm guessing, for the same reasons.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

alvinnf

I think it's a buzz word for both sides! They could do things to drive the cost down on premiums but it does'nt seem to be on the table. Speaking of states, why are'nt they willing to allow insurance companies to compete across state lines. The whole manged care system is fudging things up. They give you the sense of control and savings, the reality is it's an illusion. What about standardizing a baseline of entry level health care. Make every company nationwide compete on the same thing on price. You get a great starting point plan, a potential cobra option for in between jobs. You establish what the coverage is so no one get's screwed.

wistahpatsfan

That would be difficult because then you'd get into Fed control, which needs national consensus, which ain't happening because then we need to include the stupid states whose sheep do what the corporations tell them to do.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Real World

Howard Dean: Democrats Left Tort Reform Out of Health Care Bill Because They Feared 'Taking On' Trial Lawyers

Wednesday, August 26, 2009
By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter & Edwin Mora


(CNSNews.com) - Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, a medical doctor who served as governor of Vermont, said at a town hall meeting on Tuesday night that Democrats in Congress did not include tort reform in the health care bill because they were fearful of “taking on” the trial lawyers.

“This is the answer from a doctor and a politician,” said Dean. “Here is why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that the more stuff you put in, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason why tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on, and that is the plain and simple truth. Now, that’s the truth.”

CNSNews.com - Howard Dean: Democrats Left Tort Reform Out of Health Care Bill Because They Feared 'Taking On' Trial Lawyers

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

Real World

I'm not a fan of selling insurance across state lines. That does nothing to control the actual rise in the cost of care. All it does is penalize people who live in states where insurance is cheaper, to subisidize the people who live in states where it's more expensive. It's a gimmick policy, and sadly, we have too many of those types of idea's being bandied about. Tort reform I support, cuz it actually does attempt to control costs.

The focus should be on the actual cost of care, and not on the cost of coverage. Bring the cost of care down, and the cost of coverage will follow. Bring the cost of coverage down, and you do nothing to slow the rapidcly rising cost of care. Look at Massachusetts as an example. Insuring more people, or subsizing coverage for others, has done nothing to curb the rising cost of care.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

BelichickFan

I still say over insurance is a problem. I went to a dermatologist to have him look at a little growth to see if I should have it removed. One look, literally one minute. He said is just benign, no issue. I paid a $20 co pay which is fine. And the insurance paid $110. If people had to pay out of their pocket they wouldn't charge $130 for a one minute visit because people would choose not to go.

State

Yeah, sure.

Do to medical care--47 cents of every dollar already comes from the gubmit--what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have done to our floundering fiasco of a mortgage market.

Yeap, works for me.

Here's a better idea rather than the multiyear installment of single payer, which is what a public option would be: 1) tort reform like California's had for years; 2) permit open competition of health care insurers who currently can't compete except on a ridiculous state-by-state basis; 3) mandate that everyone pays a co-pay of $20.

I'm not pleased that a ten-year program in NH, NH Gold, the state's CHIP, has absolutely no co-pay. I had to sign a paper just to notify the doctor office that my children were not on it.

These recipients of the program have an incentive to overutilize the system. It's like giving free donuts to cops and DarrylS.

There'd be no end to the madness.

Here's some sense from Cato's Michael Tanner:Source:Like Your Health Plan? Read This | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

In Portsmouth, NH, last month the President said there are 47 million uninsured Americans. In the recent State of the Union Address he put the number at 30 million.

That number manipulation doesn't inspire confidence. Gov't, stay away from my health insurance! Talk about an invasion of privacy!

Fogbuster

Actually, as a foreigner I have to purchase health insurance to live where I am; it's mandatory. It's not expensive at all -- by current U.S. standards -- but then again it is very limited and health care here is not nearly as good as in the States, on the whole. When I lived in the States before moving -- 12 years ago -- I was paying about $400/month for a VERY high deductible plan; and that was only for three people.

I agree that the insurance company scam is outrageous, that the number of leeches and thieves that get attached to the entire billing and payment chain for medical services is outrageous -- must be ten middle men for every actual health practitioner, all getting their "cut".

And tort reform : without getting these obscene legal vampires the hell out of the way, America WILL have a Cuban/Canadian style medical system sooner rather than later.


//

__________________
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."