Ulrich said:
YouBet said:
Get rid of insurance and you probably fix this whole mess.
Turn insurance into actual insurance instead of an intermediary in every transaction, no matter how insignificant.
Yes. And give everyone a tax deferred health savings account that can be invested in relatively low risk investments. If you never get sick, it becomes part of your IRA. If you need to get something minor done, like wisdom teeth, or you get cut and needs stitches, then you've got something to pay with. If you get into a catastrophic accident or get cancer, then you've got insurance to back you up.
Another advantage of HSAs is that it's your money, so there's an incentive to not waste your money going to the ER (the most expensive form of healthcare) for frivolous things that can be taken care of by an urgent care or regular primary care family doc.
O'Doyle Rules said:
Private market has shown they can't fix their problems. Too much greed and lobbying. I'm 100% for single payer exactly for this reason.
They have had decades to fix it and refuse to do so.
Oh but the wait times with single payer!! ...blah blah blah. Eat healthy and exercise. That fixes 98% of
Problems.
I'm kind of with you. However here's the issue - single payer wouldn't really be single payer. It would be the same insurance companies we currently have, contracted with the government (similar to what you see with MediCare). I suppose the government would technically be the single payer at the top, but you're still going to see insane amounts of bureaucracy, artificially inflated prices, and all kinds of money games as insurance companies and hospitals fight among each other.
At the end of the day tax insurance companies and hospital executives will get rich off the tax payer, doctors will have to work more for less pay and patients will get less choice. I think most patients will still get adequate healthcare, and many will get far better care than they get now, but they will have less choice in the matter. Part of what Americans value a lot in health care is choice - hence why HMOs aren't as popular as PPOs.
Also, if anyone has been in the military, or been a military brat, you've been in a single payer socialized medicine system.