Overwritten.net
Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Pugnate on Sunday, April 25, 2010, 04:54:24 PM
-
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36711197/ns/health-health_care/
-
wow.
things like this make me glad health insurance is something i will hopefully never have to worry about.
-
Anyone who says we don't need health care reform or continues to protect insurance companies needs to be shot.
-
Didn't some health reform thing pass recently? I really don't pay attention, and will probably be shit out of luck at some point.
I haven't had insurance for 10 years, and have just paid the fees for any visits I've had to make, and paying full price for my medicine.
-
That is messed up. The things people will do for a buck. That insurance company is a great example of what can happen if you trust an insurer to "do the right thing." Their objective is to make profit, one way is to save money when someone actually needs insurance. When a client gets diagnosed they're no longer investors, they're liabilities.
Banks think of their clients/accounts in the same way. Low income = liability.
-
Now all we need to do is reform all the new reforms and wrest control of this back from the worthless fucking government.
-
So we can give it back to the worthwhile insurance companies, who know exactly how to screw the people expertly?
-
I'm not sure which is worse but I know it's better to deal with the devil you know than the devil you don't.
-
Yeah but...which is which?
-
Oh, so the government isn't better at screwing people? You've obviously never worked for them.
-
By nature, having health care completely privatized is a huge disservice to the people using it. Insuring people in anything is a huge crap shoot and in order to mitigate the risks in hopes of remaining at all profitable, insurance companies have to control costs as much as they can possibly get away with. It's the nature of the insurance business. It's not evil, it's just the way it is. Applying that principle to something such as health care is extremely counterproductive.
Considering the value placed on human well being and human life in our society it's just silly to set up a system where providing it comes in direct conflict with profit. It's a huge conflict of interests for the system as a whole. The health insurance industry exists for consumers to ensure that they can get adequate health care. Yet, at the same time, by having it completely privatized, a situation is created where the institutions which provide the insurance do so on the basis of profitability - that's the simple nature of a business, especially an incorporated one. It's a fundamental clash of function, more so than any other type of insurance or any other privatized industry.
There's really only one answer: the system has to be reworked in order to focus on one goal. I think when it comes down to being between dividends for shareholders and public health, any reasonable government in a well developed country would have to step in and decide that public health has to prevail.
That said, the reform that's there is a fucking joke.
-
Exaaactly.
-
There's the perfect synopsis to this sad story.
-
...any reasonable government in a well developed country would have to step in and decide that public health has to prevail.
Absolutely, if at least ideally.