Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Off Topic Paul Krugman on Health Care Realities
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31krugman.html?_r=1 A taste more at above URL .................. "Itąs a funny story ‹ but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. Itąs not just that many Americans donąt understand what President Obama is proposing; many people donąt understand the way American health care works right now. They donąt understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldnąt be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance. And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at all. The key thing you need to know about health care is that it depends crucially on insurance. You donąt know when or whether youąll need treatment ‹ but if you do, treatment can be extremely expensive, well beyond what most people can pay out of pocket. Triple coronary bypasses, not routine doctorąs visits, are where the real money is, so insurance is essential. Yet private markets for health insurance, left to their own devices, work very badly: insurers deny as many claims as possible, and they also try to avoid covering people who are likely to need care. Horror stories are legion: the insurance company that refused to pay for urgently needed cancer surgery because of questions about the patientąs acne treatment; the healthy young woman denied coverage because she briefly saw a psychologist after breaking up with her boyfriend. And in their efforts to avoid łmedical losses,˛ the industry term for paying medical bills, insurers spend much of the money taken in through premiums not on medical treatment, but on łunderwriting˛ ‹ screening out people likely to make insurance claims. In the individual insurance market, where people buy insurance directly rather than getting it through their employers, so much money goes into underwriting and other expenses that only around 70 cents of each premium dollar actually goes to care. " ..................................... I personally carry two dental plans as my primary health insurance of my spouse is better. I have to carry my own dental because if I let it go we loose all potential to go back to my own regular health insurance. Cost me US $1200 a years for insurance of insurance. Bill who wonders why we have a separate dental as the science suggests bad dental = bad health. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...tool=EntrezSys tem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Def aultReportPanel.Pubmed_ RVDocSum -- Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Off Topic Paul Krugman on Health Care Realities
Bill who putters wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31krugman.html?_r=1 A taste more at above URL ................. "Itąs a funny story ‹ but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. Itąs not just that many Americans donąt understand what President Obama is proposing; many people donąt understand the way American health care works right now. They donąt understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldnąt be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance. True and government is highly involved in education and both health care costs and education costs are spiraling out of control. Does anyone seriously think that even more government involvement is going to result in better treatment or lower cost? |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Off Topic Paul Krugman on Health Care Realities
In article ,
Frank wrote: Bill who putters wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31krugman.html?_r=1 A taste more at above URL ................. "It1s a funny story Đ but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. It1s not just that many Americans don1t understand what President Obama is proposing; many people don1t understand the way American health care works right now. They don1t understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldn1t be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance. True and government is highly involved in education and both health care costs and education costs are spiraling out of control. Does anyone seriously think that even more government involvement is going to result in better treatment or lower cost? Yes, someone does. Medicare works just fine. All we have to do is pry off the health insurance leeches. But that will have the same problems as trying to pry wasteful defense spendng out of congressional districts. -- Racial injustice, war, urban blight, and environmental rape have a common denominator in our exploitative economic system.* ~Channing E. Phillips http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm http://www.tomdispatch.com/p/zinn |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Krugman on the Occupy Wallstreet reactions | Garden Photos | |||
Fear of Eating by Paul Krugman | Gardening | |||
Fear of Eating by Paul Krugman | Edible Gardening |