Scan Medical Insurance

What's wrong with affordable health insurance without a middle man?

We have affordable car insurance and the gov't doesn't get involved in that, do they? Am I the only one who thinks a few of these industries (insurance, pharmaceutical) should be regulated?

Public Comments

1. insurance,,, AIG,,,, the ultimate scamming of the world
2. No, you're not alone. But even car insurance is meddled with. Usually by state govt. However, NJ privatised car registration. When I get my license 5 years ago, it took me 4 hours. I'd moved & came back last year. It took only 20 minutes. Proof if govt gets out of the way things work.
3. Yes, they can certainly lower some premiums and those companies who do self-funded insurance have lower costs usually. Their premiums are based on the health of the employees and their lifestyles. So we also need to take responsibility. If you smoke, you use up 42% of a company's insurance costs. If you have diabetes, asthma, heart disease, etc, you also need to control your eating and exercise habits, along with environment (asthma). If we refuse to take responsibility too, then we have no one but ourselves to blame. We cannot expect to live in unhealthy ways but demand low insurance costs. That will never happen.
4. The market is the regulator. If a company screws its customers they will leave it and the company will fail. Propping up failing companies prevents this necessary cleansing action from occurring. The biggest difference between auto insurance and health insurance is that many people don't pay for their own health insurance. This has two negative effects. First, the patient doesn't care how much a procedure costs because he is not paying the premium. Second, the insurer isn't directly accountable to the patient because someone else is paying the bill. Therefore, the insurer has less motivation to provide excellent service and the patient has no motivation to control cost.
5. my state puts regulations on what and how much insurance a driver must carry......so yeah, gov't DOES regulate how much you pay. Name me one thing the gov't sticks its hands in that hasn't been a flop (or at least worse than before) once they entered.
6. In my view there is nothing wrong with your proposal, if it is one. What those on the right oppose is government intervention of any type and because it means that they cannot reap the kind of obscene profits that they have.
7. How would you like to be a doctor that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on 12 years of school only to find out the government is going to pay you the same salary as an auto mechanic.If the government gets a hold of our health care we're in big trouble.
8. I'm pleading the "fifth". My best friend is an insurance agent.
9. Have you ever dealt with a goverment agency when trying to get anythign accomplished? Obviously not, you are probably still in high school, and you wouldn't make such a statement. Talk about frustration and red tape.
10. Your question is much too logical to be taken seriously here. There are numerous ways to reform healthcare. The German model uses private, for profit health insurers who are subject to government regulations that prohibit them from denying coverage bases on pre-existing conditions. So their system is more of a hybrid than other European single payer systems, ranging from this to the British system of socialized medicine where the doctors work for the government to the French system of private doctors but with a single payer system. The big difference, or course, is that the United States has allowed the medical profession to become a for profit system. The free market zealots think this is just fine but the fact is that by allowing the profit motive into this basic human need they are ruining our economy. Soon the portion of our incomes that the health care system demands of us will exceed our ability to pay and we will essentially be working in exchange for healthcare. Economic slavery anyone? But consider this. If we should end up with a single payer system it will spell the end of our economy unless Obama can muster the courage and ammunition to stop the insane prices that the healthcare profession charges us for their services. A single payer system without removing these criminally high prices will create a Bubble that will dwaft even the housing bubble. Close your eyes and try to imagine just how raped and robbed we will be when every person in the country can get medical care that is subsidized by the government with the greedy sons of dogs in the healthcare business charging $235.00 for an aspirin. And to the free maketers who claim that a single payer system with price controls won't work, I remind them of Vlad Lenin. Vlad pulled a 38 caliber pistol from his pocket and put it to the head of a train conductor refusing to run the train. Vlad cocked the pistol and Mr. Conductor yelled, "All Aboard!" The trains ran on time and so will the appendix operations after a couple of well placed bullets.
11. I agree. Since the Insurance companies have gamed the system to the extent that they are taking in 40% gross profits, I think we can certainly get back to running the system with a 10-15% cost of processing claims like it used to be, or 5% like we pay for medicare claims processing.
12. You are right, insurance isn't the issue. The high cost of health care drives the price of insurance. It doesn't matter how you provide insurance if the cost of health care isn't reduced. On the other hand, if you reduce the cost of health care, we will be able to afford private health insurance. Too often, we don't address the real problem.
13. My friend has public health, public car insurance as well as public pharmaceuticals. Ha Ha he says.