[Vision2020] Health Care

[Andreas Schou]

On 1/9/07, Kai Eiselein <fotopro63 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ok, so 5% doesn't sound like much..... until you figure out the millions
> upon millions of dollars involved.

Kai --

I didn't say 5%. I said 1.5%. It's certainly millions and millions of
dollars, but it's also a tiny part of the problem. Malpractice reform
is a boondoggle on the behalf of the AMA to prevent bad doctors from
being held accountable for bad medicine. A recent analysis of
malpractice claims found that 5% of doctors were responsible for 50%
of malpractice awards. If you want to cut down on malpractice awards,
these people should no longer be allowed to practice medicine. It's as
simple as that. No one should insure these doctors.

-- ACS

> Sooooooo, limit the amount that can be awarded and punish lawyers/law firms
> that bring frivolous suits.
> Doctors won't have to spend as much for coverage and will be able to charge
> more reasonable rates, more reasonable doctor's fees would help bring more
> reasonable insurance rates.
> Medical insurance companies have a right to charge more for higher risk
> consumers. Why should it be any different than, say, auto insurance? Drivers
> convicted of DUIs pay more than drivers who haven't ever had a ticket. More
> risk, more money.
> Smokers, alcoholics and illicit drug users are all taking a risk, and should
> pay more for an insurance company to do the same.
> But the real question is, do you trust your government enough to decide what
> is right for you?
> What can the government do, that private industry cannot do better?

Roads? National defense? Basic research? There's a standard amount of
waste built into everything the government contracts out to a private
supplier. It's called the profit margin. Further, those sort of
public-private alliances always end up with a circular flow of money
-- the contractor lobbies the legislature for increasing disbursements
and decreasing accountability.

Oh, and health care. The United States has the highest health care
costs, and the highest out-of-pocket costs, of any industrialized
nation. That includes countries like Canada, whose nationalized health
care system doesn't even *work* that well. Even inside the United
States, our own socialized medicine systems work better than the
market -- the VA has per-patient costs far below the market, and both
Medicare and Medicaid patients report higher levels of satisfaction
than people accessing industry-supported health care.

It is utterly bizarre that, after World War II, we decided that every
company should go into the business of providing health care to its
employees. Health care -- especially *effective* health care -- should
be a public service, and there's every indication that I, and everyone
else, would pay less for it in tax money than we might otherwise pay
for it out of pocket.

-- ACS

Health care, Kai. The United States has higher health care costs than
any other country in the world. Sure, we have "better" healthcare, for
those that can afford it, but it'

> After all, the government isn't interested in saving money, there is no
> incentive to. They'll just get more from the taxpayer. Then they'll need
> more and more bureaucrats to run the programs, at a higher and higher cost,
> with no accountabilty, which will cost all of us even more.
> Remember, this is the same government that couldn't deal with a hurricane
> and pays outrageous prices for toilet seats. It spent thousands developing a
> pen that would write in the weightlessness of outer space, the Russians used
> pencils.
> The more of your choices/responsibilties you are willing to give to your
> government, the more control that government will have over you.
> Sorry kids and Mouseketeers but I can't trust a government that can't even
> control its own borders, can't deal with a natural disaster and doesn't have
> enough sense to save money by using a pencil.
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