Public Health Vs Health Care
Public VS. Private ….Health Insurance…?
I hear opponents of “Obamacare”, say things like…. “I don’t want to pay for someone else’s health care…I already have my own insurance”
But, this is somewhat of a conundrum,….since…when you pay your premiums, you pay into a “collective fund” that the insurance company controls, and uses to pay claims by “others”…, and of course the insurance company takes a good chunk of it as profit.
Now i’m not saying profit is a bad thing…. but isn’t the only real difference between a private and public plan….the PROFIT ?
Whether or not your on a public or private plan…you are still paying for others, both directly and indirectly…
Quote by Professor Willem Buiter – Professor of European Political Economy, London School of Economics and Political Science; former chief economist of the EBRD, former external member of the MPC; adviser to international organisations, governments, central banks and private financial institutions.
http://blogs.ft.com/maverecon/2009/07/the-inevitable-socialisation-of-health-care-financing/
Quote -
“The rise of genomics – the branch of genetics that studies organisms in terms of their full DNA sequences or genomes – will in the not too distant future kill off most private health insurance. That’s probably a good thing, for two reasons. First, because of asymmetric information, when there is risk and uncertainty about a person’s future health, health insurance markets are badly affected by adverse selection and moral hazard. Second, because the private health insurance industry is a monument to inefficiency everywhere and, especially in the US, a rent-seeking Leviathan whose ruthless lobbying efforts corrupt all it touches.”
Health Insurance Companies do lots of rationing themselves, in fact they have whole departments dedicated to scrutinising insurance claims, looking at small print and scouring medical histories.The Health Insurance Companies pay these people bonuses in relation to the money money they save.
A couple of recent Articles -
Fewer than half of all Americans trust that their health insurance plans would pay for the full costs of cancer treatment and nearly two-thirds falsely believe Medicare would not pay anything, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5670JX20090708
Medical insurers in Britain are cutting cancer cover, with many refusing to help those who need palliative care. The changes come as increasing numbers of patients seek help paying for drugs that could prolong their lives.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1199689/Insurers-cut-cover-cancer-treatment-costs-soar.html
So pay all that money to private medical company insurers you could still be turned down for treatment and then there is the small print and examination of your medical history.
Give me the NHS over profit run heath care any day.
The Public Plan Deception – It’s Not About Choice
Themocracy