Can you identify one example of any product or service, anything

[JDPriestly]

that insurance companies provide with regard to health care that a government employee couldn't provide just as well, probably better and cheaper?

[polichick]

1. Attitude?? nt

[Buzz Clik]

2. Motivation?

Seriously, you have dealt with civil servants before.

[Catshrink]

5. Very few of the civil servants I've dealt with were incompetent.

I don't know why they have such a bad reputation because most are dedicated to their jobs and work hard for very little appreciation. At least the civil servant jobs will stay in the US and not be outsourced as private companies are wont to do.

[Buzz Clik]

7. I don't believe I used the word "incompetent."

At least fifty percent of the civil servants I have encountered whose job is to interface with the public are awful at their job. At least 25% of them hate people.

Profit and the threat of losing one's job can be a great motivator.

[JDPriestly]

6. Actually, I have had good experiences with civil servants.

I have had horrible ones with the employees of some of the HMOs.

In addition, the motivation of the employees of private insurance companies is horrible. It's profit. That has no place in health care. The insurance companies should be required by law to operate within the Hippocratic Oath. First do not harm. They would, of course, go bankrupt or at least have to cut their managers' salaries.

Katrina is a great example of how private contractors can totally mess up something. Compare what was done in Katrina to what was done in the San Francisco earthquake nearly a century earlier. The U.S. military saved the day in San Francisco. Blackwater was completely incompetent in Katrina.

http://www.sfmuseum.com/hist10/06timeline.html

The city's interim fire chief (the original one was killed when the earthquake first struck) sent an urgent request to the Presidio, an Army post on the edge of the stricken city, for dynamite. Funston had already decided the situation required the use of troops. Collaring a policeman, he sent word to Mayor Schmitz of his decision to assist, and then ordered Army troops from as far away as Angel Island to mobilize and come into the City. Explosives were ferried across the Bay from the California Powder Works in what is now Hercules.

During the first few days, soldiers provided valuable services patrolling streets to discourage looting and guarding buildings such as the US Mint, post office, and county jail. They aided the fire department in dynamiting to demolish buildings in the path of the fires. The Army also became responsible for feeding, sheltering, and clothing the tens of thousands of displaced residents of the city. Under the command of Funston's superior, Major General Adolphus Greely, Commanding Officer, Pacific Division, over 4,000 troops saw service during the emergency. On July 1, 1906, civil authorities assumed responsibility for relief efforts, and the Army withdrew from the city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake

Similarly, in the recent fires near La Canada, the government firefighters did a great job. Couldn't have asked for more.

[Buzz Clik]

8. Ok. Our experiences differ.

[fujiyama]

10. Motivation to do what though?

Deny claims? Threaten collection agencies after you if you can't afford to pay?

I've noticed little difference between the faceless ass holes I've dealt with on the phone from private industry and those in the federal government. My experiences with big banks and insurance companies are among the worst.

[Broken_Hero]

12. Motivation to do their job

I have IHS which is government run, and its hit/miss with the kind of care you receive depending on which clinic you go to.

Usually from the admitting ladies, to the nurses, to the doctors they act like they are doing you a favor, or giving you grief, or denying you access because you don't have X, Y, or Z, or they are just being mean, to be mean.

I've come across IHS workers who treat you like crap, they act like they are going out of their way to look at you, I get the impression that most of them would rather just ignore me, than do their job.

On the other hand, I've been to IHS clinics/Hospitals that were very good, but it depends on which one you go to, its a coin flip.

To me, it reminds me of how the welfare office treated my friends when they applied for food stamps/welfare, the worker treated them badly, was rude, and acted like she was going OUT of her way to do them a service.

[Kip Humphrey]

3. claim denials, rate increases, reducing coverage, to name just three.

[bemildred]

4. They produce a lot of taxpayer's money.

[kenny blankenship]

9. They don't produce anything. They're like a casino.

You bet that you'll get the benefit of what you pay in and maybe more.
They're betting that they'll get more out of you than they'll ever have to pay. And they have a little advantage in that they get to decide if they pay.

Both sides are making a bet. It's just gambling; the policy issuer as well as the policy holder does nothing to produce a new drug or to perform surgery. Both sides wager on who will end up paying more. Only one of you though is making hundreds of billions a year on this transaction!

[alfredo]

11. Justification for repealing McCarran-Ferguson

Edited to add a link

http://www.asashop.org/news/2009/march2009/PR27.htm

[JDPriestly]

14. Thanks for the link. Good to know this is being proposed. I hope the repeal goes through.

[alfredo]

17. I see the repeal is a punitive measure for how they have treated us.

[melm00se]

13. bureaucrats

whether they be public or private are generally full of self-importance and power that just begs to be used (and they do)

[dembotoz]

15. under reagon denial of elegibilty for initial ss disability claims were way up

obviously disabled folks were denied benefits.
A % of applicants never filed an appeal.
The gov. saved money.
We cannot assume that just because someone is employed by the government that
they will be kinder and gentler that was passes for compassion from private insurance now.
The Key is to make sure that republicans are never in power again.

AND
that as democrats we don't forget that names on a form represent real people.

[Ian David]

16. My insurance company couldn't even tell me where I could go to get a flu shot.

"Why is it called a referral, if you can't REFER me to someplace?"

Useless fucks.