Some Truths about Health Care Reform

[rhett o rick]

First let me say the title is misleading. Those that want reform want to improve the health CARE of all Americans by reforming the health INSURANCE industry. It is the health insurance companies that are strangling our health care. No other modern country allows health insurance corporations to interfere with primary health care. No other modern country allows citizen to go with out primary health care.

What is the function of health insurance? They take your premiums and distribute them to those that need the coverage. For that function, they charge about 30%. The annual profit of these companies is approx. 500 billion dollars. This is money that comes from your premiums and doesn’t get returned as benefits. Thirty cents (almost 1/3) out of every dollar of your premium goes to their expenses including tens and hundreds of millions in executive salaries. No other modern nation, has this industry.

Those that want reform are NOT advocating the government take over of anything let alone health care. They want the currently unregulated profits of insurance companies to come down via competition. The health insurance companies today have no competition. They currently divide up the states and do not compete with each other in these states. Also, they are exempted from the law forbidding price fixing. There is nothing stopping them from uniformly raising rates.

Reformers would like to see the government have an insurance program that will compete with the health insurance companies and drive down their outrageous profits. Medicare insurance, as an example, operates with an overhead of 3%, or 3 cents on the dollar of paid premiums. This would be similar to every other modern country in the world. I say similar because other countries have different methods but NONE have for profit insurance for primary care.

Again, reformers are not advocating the government take over doctors, hospitals, clinics, or anything related to health CARE, only provide a competitive insurance option.

Some critics ask about the cost of this program that will provide decent health care for all Americans. This is a reasonable question although, many asking the question don’t bat an eye when Congress approves hundreds of billions to be wasted on a war somewhere in the Middle East, where enough is lost or wasted to pay for a lot of decent health care. But back to the cost. By providing an option for inexpensive insurance the high cost of premiums will be driven down. This should be more of a savings than the cost of providing the insurance option. Removing the health insurance industries outrageous profits ($500 billion) from the cost of health care will reduce the total cost to the taxpayers. Remember, that our health care costs are the highest in the world, in fact one and one-half times higher than any other country, not because our hospitals or doctors are too expensive, but because we allow the health insurance industry to skim off $500 billion dollars a year off the top.

Also, a great savings to taxpayers will occur if we provide decent health care to those currently uninsured. Currently they are a tremendous burden to tax payers because instead of going to a doctor for a child’s strep throat (for example), they go to the emergency room which costs taxpayers 5 to 10 times more. Instead of getting regular mammograms or prostrate tests, they come for help after cancer has developed. Preventative medicine saves money.
It is ironic that many that oppose health insurance reform claim to be pro-life, yet the United States allows more infants to die for lack of health care than any other modern nation. The United States allows more seniors to die younger than any other modern nation. Tens of thousands of US citizens die every year due to lack of decent health care. Talk about death panels. Remember the exorbitant profits of the health insurance industry are directly related to the number of claims they deny.

Did you know that the constitution that the United States forced Iraq to accept, requires that all Iraqi’s be given access to health CARE. Iraq, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, etc., all have better health care than the US.

Here is a link to debunk some health care lies put out by the health care industry:

http://healthcarereformmyths.org/HealthcareReformMyths.php#A23

[rhett o rick]

1. Afternoon kick. nt

[ddeclue]

2. Stop calling them "myths" - stop being nice about liars - they are LIES call them that.

:argh:

[rhett o rick]

3. Thanks so much for responding. My post drop like Cheney's friends on a hunting trip.

I have friends, relatives, and neighbors that are good people but badly misinformed by the CorpMedia. I am attempting to provide them with a friendly discussion of the truth. Although I agree we need to get tough and even nasty in the fight, to harsh of wording might turn off those that are on the fence.

[rhett o rick]

4. I know it is sad when one has to kick their own post, but.....

[rhett o rick]

5. hello

[rhett o rick]

6. Morning kick. Any one have a comment? Do I have to make my subject line more inflammatory? nt

[WeCanWorkItOut]

7. Actually , I think nurse practitioners could be part of the solution

On the myth-site they seemed to be against NPs.
But if there were more NPs, and if they were allowed
to practice more independently they could do a lot of good,
especially in underserved areas.

I wonder if the authors of the myth-site were perhaps
just following Howard Dean's idea of not annoying
too many big interest groups at once. They want reform,
so they're trying to please the doctors lobbies,
which tend to be against nurse practitioners.

[rhett o rick]

8. Thanks for responding. That makes two of you that don't yet have me on ignore.

I personally think NP are a good idea. However, that won't solve any of the problems we have at the moment. We seem to have enough doctors especially when we are hiring so many from out of country. Now if we get universal coverage, then we will need more doctors and therefor NP's may be a big help.