SamSpade
Well-Known Member
You'd think from Gibb's remarks that the primary problem with health care is insurance.
They're just a go-between. By and large, their costs are reflected by the industries' costs - where comparisons abroad show, we pay twice as much for the same medical costs.
I liken it to Waste Management. They pick up my trash (or, they used to, until I got sick of them raising my rates). They charge one basic fee, and for that, they come to my house and take pretty much anything I put in that container. But if the county doubles its landfill costs, they have to raise theirs. WM isn't the problem - the county is.
Or I liken it to a gas station like Wawa. They price their gas on the amount they pay for it. They don't drill for oil. They don't build refineries. They buy and sell gas. If their prices go up, it's not their fault that oil is selling at 83 a barrel.
The problem insurance companies have is, they try to keep premiums at a mininum and still cover the expenses. But to keep us all from paying all of our fortunes for health care, they create limits. They have to. If they were auto insurance, the top cost is the cost of the car (barring medical liability). They can't put a cap on what they insure. Most of us will use about half the money we pay in premiums, but it still can't cover every mega-expensive procedure. They MUST put limits, or price themselves to the point where NO ONE can afford insurance.
Why? Because medical costs can rival the budgets of small nations. Health care COSTS are the problem. Not insurance companies. If we got rid of all insurance companies tomorrow, it wouldn't make health care costs necessarily cheaper - at least, not the really, really expensive ones, because NO ONE could afford them except the very rich.
But the Democrats are continually demonizing the insurance companies for their behavior regarding very expensive care. Why not demonize medical professionals, for charging tens of thousands for medical treatment, for charging hundreds of thousands for surgery? Or demonize lawyers, who sue and cost millions?
They're just a go-between. By and large, their costs are reflected by the industries' costs - where comparisons abroad show, we pay twice as much for the same medical costs.
I liken it to Waste Management. They pick up my trash (or, they used to, until I got sick of them raising my rates). They charge one basic fee, and for that, they come to my house and take pretty much anything I put in that container. But if the county doubles its landfill costs, they have to raise theirs. WM isn't the problem - the county is.
Or I liken it to a gas station like Wawa. They price their gas on the amount they pay for it. They don't drill for oil. They don't build refineries. They buy and sell gas. If their prices go up, it's not their fault that oil is selling at 83 a barrel.
The problem insurance companies have is, they try to keep premiums at a mininum and still cover the expenses. But to keep us all from paying all of our fortunes for health care, they create limits. They have to. If they were auto insurance, the top cost is the cost of the car (barring medical liability). They can't put a cap on what they insure. Most of us will use about half the money we pay in premiums, but it still can't cover every mega-expensive procedure. They MUST put limits, or price themselves to the point where NO ONE can afford insurance.
Why? Because medical costs can rival the budgets of small nations. Health care COSTS are the problem. Not insurance companies. If we got rid of all insurance companies tomorrow, it wouldn't make health care costs necessarily cheaper - at least, not the really, really expensive ones, because NO ONE could afford them except the very rich.
But the Democrats are continually demonizing the insurance companies for their behavior regarding very expensive care. Why not demonize medical professionals, for charging tens of thousands for medical treatment, for charging hundreds of thousands for surgery? Or demonize lawyers, who sue and cost millions?
It would be extremely cool if C-SPAN actually did run an ad like that.
