Why Public Health Care is Better Than Private Health Care (by Hale "Bonddad" Stewart for HuffPost)

[marmar]

Why Public Health Care is Better Than Private Health Care



Thanks to Michael Moore's movie SiCKO the health care debate is now front and center. While I have not seen the movie -- and probably won't -- I firmly agree with the need to create some type of national health insurance. There are three primary reasons for this.

While I will almost always advocate for a market based economic approach to allocating resources, health care is not an area where the profit motive should dominate decision making. Simply put, the end product is a patient's health. Private health insurance has a conflict of interest between the insurance company and the insured which will be resolved in favor of the insurance company a majority of the time.

Let me paint a hypothetical picture to illustrate this point. Insured makes a claim with the insurance company, which is a publicly traded company. Because the insurance company is publicly traded they must turn a profit and increase their profits to maintain their share price. In order to make a profit they have every incentive to either

1. Deny the insured's claim, or
2. Delay payment to increase the possibility the insured will drop his claim

There are numerous stories about an insured making a routine claim only to be inundated with paperwork, or being told the policy doesn't cover that procedure, or being told the insurance company has to look into the claim to see if the insurance company can make a payment. In any of these situations the central idea of insurance -- to provide some safety for the insured at a specific cost -- is compromised.

In addition, insurance companies will seek to minimize the amount of money they would have to pay to the insured. Again, remember the product here is the patient's health. Supposed the insured has a disease where the cure is expensive but a cheaper alternative exists. However, the cheaper alternative would moderately or seriously compromise the insured's quality of life. Because the insurance company is profit-driven, it will probably opt for the cheaper treatment that compromises the insured's quality of life.

Secondly, private health care is more expensive the public health care. Here are three charts compiled from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The figures are from 2004. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hale-stewart/why-public-health-care-is_b_55967.html

[many a good man]

1. "Health care costs are killing American business."

I might add:

Health care costs are killing Americans.

Health care costs will eventually bankrupt the nation.

Single payer is the only solution. It is inevitable that we will have single payer. The only question is when? Two years? Five years? Ten? Twenty? The longer we wait, the closer we get to ruination.