And now, on the topic of healthcare reform...

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Comments

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I really wish you get some health care for your girl. I just don't see how things can get better with the bill we have in Congress.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

For starters, insurance companies couldn't charge more for preconditions and/or outright deny insurance.

Plus one of the things government should do is care for the welfare of those who need it most. A sick person being denied insurance and thus the ability to live seems like someone in pretty dire need.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

what you say? Government provide for the well being of it's citizens?

Outrageous! Government is clearly supposed to be made up of people who, in response to entreaties for help, reply "BOOTSTRAPS!"

And then bomb you, if you're brown.

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

"insurance companies couldn't charge more for preconditions and/or outright deny insurance" - what do you think will be immediate consequence of that? Right away?

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

what do you think will be immediate consequence of that? Right away?

Less profit for them. Which I'm okay with because I don't think health insurance should be a for-profit business.

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. So that means there will be no private health insurance, right?

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

Huh? No.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Just means no $30 million yacht each year for each major executive of every insurer in the US. Is all.

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately it doesn't.

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

How do you envision a national-wide health care system based on private non-profit organizations? I can't imagine that. For me it looks like there are only two variants: either profitable private business, or government tax-funded program. If the regulation takes away private insurer's profits, insurer will find better use for his money.

In reality, though, they will not sacrifice their profits, at least initially. They will raise premiums. Government will probably want to cap premiums in order to protect public, insurers will come up with some other way to transfer expenses to customers, and so on. Very entertaining process, especially from a vantage point of a guy who pays for it.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

you realize that a not-for-profit corporation isn't prohibited from making money, it's simply not the primary goal of the corporation, right?

[donolectic.livejournal.com]

An example of non-profits working in real life: Credit Unions. Make insurance companies non-profits that compete with each other, just like credit unions do with each other (and for-profit banks).

[dwer.livejournal.com]

there's an illogical conclusion if I ever saw one.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

It boggles the mind how they can get together supposedly in the "spirit of compromise" and come up not with something that everyone sorta likes, but something everyone hates. How the fuck do they manage that?

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

Nature of the matter in question. They can't even discuss this stuff openly. Anybody who describes the real goals, content and consequences of the reform will become politically dead in no time. They can't talk to people frankly about the rationing, about saving resources on end-of-life care, about prioritizing, about all the additional taxes, direct and indirect. Hence all the fight under the rug, compromises, and petty populist moves - with totally expected results.