OT: Health care in the US

>
> Young people might find it hard to believe that folks didn't much
> worry about health care in the old days (i.e. 1940's, 50's). It wasn't
> cheap, but working adults managed it pretty easily. Even if one had a
> serious med emergency, it was like maybe having to contract for a new
> roof covering or buying a car. The financial ruin that the uninsured
> now face was pretty much unheard of.
>
> Then came the "Miracles of Modern Medicine", like the iron lung. :-)
> Pretty soon there were all manner of new and very expensive med
> tests and procedures to guide/aid treatment.
>
> Most employers eventually picked up on the fact that med insurance
> was an effective and logical perk.
>
> Med costs continued to accelerate, the insurance industry decided to
> focus on ever-more-expensive full-coverage policies for those who
> could afford them (and to hell with those that couldn't).
>
> Med insurance became a form of "social extortion": if you didn't
> have it, you were putting yourself and family in a position of
> unacceptable financial risk.
>
> Price gouging eventually ran rampant. Price increases wildly in
> excess of those in other industries became the norm.
>
> It wasn't enough for them. They found that hair-splitting legal
> teams could deny payment for treatment of anything that could be
> conceived of as a "pre-existing condition" (or other legalese),
> leaving much more money for their executive bonuses, etc.
>
> Folks generally just pay the premiums, having little idea what
> med conditions are actually covered and which would not be.
> Something akin to paying out-the-nose for insurance that may
> -not- be insurance.
>
> The medico's hate the insurance folk b/c they know they take 25-40%
> of the money out of the game and add nothing medical.
>
> The insurance folk hate the medico's b/c they know they are always,
> busy, busy, busy running unnecessary tests, procedures, etc.
>
> Europe, Canada, etc have functional if somewhat troublesome med
> coverage systems.
>
> If both the private and public sectors were working properly, you
> could flip a coin. Or just leave things as they are. But private US
> health ins. has clearly failed, and gov't largely "belongs" to certain
> moneyed interests (witness the trillions for the alleged "Bank
> Bailout"). Such moneyed interests regularly pour millions of dollars
> into contributions and lobbying public officials. Their influence
> cannot rationally be denied.
>
> Clearly Medicare is vastly more functional than private insurance in
> the US. But the population is terrorized re demon "socialized
> medicine": what would happen if a government program worked like the
> SEC worked with Madoff & Co.?
>
> The country is insanely divided into contentious groups given to
> little more than sectarian bickering.
>
> We are now in a position to window-dress (only) to avoid admitting
> defeat. Baucus appears to belong to Wellpoint. The Obama crew appears
> to belong to United Health Care. All of this spells D-E-N-I-A-L (of
> any real solution, and perhaps of the actual problem as well).
>
> Why lie about it? Health care, like food and shelter, is one of the
> most important requirements of a society. To admit that we cannot
> manage it now might some day motivate folks to actually do something
> substantial about it.
>
> I
>

> Why can't we have the same plan the Congress has? We are all footing the
> bill for their insurance. They hardly pay anything for their insurance
> and they make a lot of money. Even when they are voted out of office, they
> still keep their high class plan.

>> Why can't we have the same plan the Congress has? We are all footing the
>> bill for their insurance. They hardly pay anything for their insurance
>> and they make a lot of money. Even when they are voted out of office,
>> they
>> still keep their high class plan.

> Congress has no special plan(s). These are regular group plans, it
> is just that the group is so freaking huge and (more importantly) the
> government isn't required to make any money so they can pay a freaking
> huge percentage of the premium that it just looks special. Actually with
> the subsidies they are talking about, it might work out to be the same.