Don't Support Obama's Health Care Reform? You Might be a Racist

[Tulip86]

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

Yes but this would then lead us down the same path that the U.K., Europe and Canada has already gone down with poor service and increased costs. I think we should go back to fee for service with catastrophic insurance coverage offered at varying levels dependent upon ones wants and needs. The government can assist those in need with assistance for non-emergency care.

Can you clarify what you mean by "Europe"? You know that that ranges from Iceland to Turkey right? Quality of healthcare varies greatly in Europe. Scandinavian and Benelux countries have possibly the best healthcare in the world, while other European countries have abysmal heathcare and a hospital visit is both costly and downright scary there.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I never understood why health insurance should have anything to do with your employment. Why health insurance?

Back in 2009, this American Life did a good little summary on how our employer-based health insurance system developed. You can hear the segment on that here.

The short answer is that the granddaddy of health insurance companies -- Blue Cross -- got started marketing itself to employers/employee groups to build pools of premium payers, most of whom wouldn't need to use the insurance much. (Though I don't think they mention it, Blue Shield had a similar start. Blue Cross was for hospital care and Blue Shield for physician care.)

Then, starting with WWII and its tighter labor pool and limited wages, employers began to offer health insurance more widely (along with other fringe benefits) to lure workers. Then, the government said that employers didn't have to pay taxes on health insurance premiums, giving employers a major incentive to offer health insurance as an employee benefit. And there we were.

Originally Posted by Tulip86

Can you clarify what you mean by "Europe"? You know that that ranges from Iceland to Turkey right? Quality of healthcare varies greatly in Europe. Scandinavian and Benelux countries have possibly the best healthcare in the world, while other European countries have abysmal heathcare and a hospital visit is both costly and downright scary there.

Not to mention that single-payer and universal health care are not the same thing. While most of Europe has universal health care, not all European countries achieve universal health care through a single-payer system. Germany comes to mind as one country that has universal health care with a multi-payer system.

[AGDee]

I think a single-payer system would be a disaster, which is why I like the act as it has been passed. I believe firmly that it will lower premiums significantly because it focuses on competition and quality both. I can say that the health insurance plan that is my current employer is scrambling to get the per member per month administrative costs down so that they can offer competitive premiums. Additionally, as the only non-profit health care plan in Michigan right now, they have been the insurer of last resort who could not turn away people because of previous history. When that entire burden rests on one health plan, that plan has to fight to survive because they get the entire high risk pool dumped on them, which increases premiums for all of their members. Ditto for hospitals in the inner city who bear most of the burden of providing free care for the uninsured.

My ideal system would take the plans out of the employers' hands completely, save for vouchers they could provide to their employees to select any plan they choose. That would enable them to lure high quality employees with "benefits", but the "benefits" wouldn't dictate which insurance plan the employee could choose. This would be real choice, real capitalism, because you could pick based on cost, quality, customer service, providers covered, etc. Health care insurance companies are scrambling to improve all of things right now, in advance of the health exchanges going up in October, 2013.

Let me pick. Give us freedom. Maintain competition among them to keep prices down.

[Janeman]

And still manages to have a very decent medical care.