This is total unadulterated bullshit.
Health care quality has gone up steadily over the last few years - and last few decades, and the better care we can get now is more expensive than the inferior care we paid less for a few decades ago.
If you want to pay 1960's prices for health care you can - just settle for 1960's health care!
Look at it this way:
A compact car cost about $2000 in 1975. A sub-compact car cost $15,000 today.
Does that mean there has been 750% inflation?
Nope. The sub-compact you get today is better than the 1975 compact - in fact, it's better than the top of the line sports-car was in 1975. Faster to 60MPH, quicker to stop and safer in an accident, with better heat, A/C and stereo. And GPS.
So comparing only costs between cars of 1975 and 2011 is... idiotic.
So it comparing the cost of medicine in 1975 to the cost of medicine in 2011.
This is one BASIC reason health care insurance has gone up steadily over the last few decades.
I think people ought to stop a lot of their whining about rising heath care costs.
I think the real issue is that people ought to pay for their own health care - especially when so many health care issues are lifestyle related.
We need to transition to personal health accounts and away from Medicare and Medicaid. We shouldn't want career politicians and their lobbyist pals to make health decisions for us or for the system as a whole.
4 comments:
There is a problem afoot with health insurance premiums, however.
Just this week, a friend of mine got the new rate for his health insurance plan: $1700/month for the employee portion ($500 for the employer portion). This friend of mine makes less that $30,000 a year -- and does provide an essential service that all of us use. I won't share the profession in a public forum.
Many health insurance companies cite the unknown upcoming costs of ObamaCare as one reason for hiking premiums to the moon.
In my view, the primary goal of ObamaCare is to destroy the health-insurance industry. By various means that will not become apparent until two more years.
people ought to pay for their own health care - especially when so many health care issues are lifestyle related
I favor that (except for military who have seen service in a theatre of war). But just look at those government and union plans! Insureds live any way they want to, and we the taxpayers end up picking up the tab because we the taxpayers are paying the employer portion of those health insurance policies.
Of course, paying for one's own health care is well nigh impossible if catastrophe (medical or car accident) occurs. The bill for Mr. AOW's 9 weeks after his stroke was over $170,500! Now, over our lifetimes, Mr. AOW, our employers, and I have paid in more than $1 million in premiums.
Those of us who have paid in big time are the ones who are punished because of pre-existing conditions. Others, who avoided paying premiums, buy into health insurance only when they know they're deathly ill: for example, my cousin-in-law did that with breast cancer. She got the policy, the only health insurance she ever held, before the cancer was diagnosed, but she DID know about the lump in her breast; she ran up bills over $600,000 before she died three years later, and over 80% of the those bills got picked up by Blue Cross.
My cousin's case isn't unique, either. I know several people who sought out a government job only after they knew they had undiagnosed diabetes.
In my view, the entire health-insurance industry will come down within the next 5 years. It's that fouled up now. **sigh**
health insurance - like medicare and medicaid and social security - is poorly run and designed.
there's not enough competition and no health accounts and too many that get care and don't pay so that those who can pay underwrite these.
health insurance needs to be as competitive as home and car insurance.
and people need to keep much of the money they now fork over to the insurers - all those years they're healthy - so they can have it for that rainy day.
health insurance needs to be as competitive as home and car insurance.
and people need to keep much of the money they now fork over to the insurers - all those years they're healthy - so they can have it for that rainy day.
Amen to that!
Of course, it's too late for Mr. AOW and me. **sigh**
Yes, we pay more for better service.
But, the service is increasing in quality to an extent that the average Joe can no longer afford the really good service. And yet, there is no way to buy only the old service.
The Health Care system does need to be revamped. But, it is more a matter of managing the expectations of the populace. They can not afford the latest miracle cures all the time. But, they can afford to see the Dr. and get the anti-biotics they need.
There need to be whole health groups/insurance collectives that are based on meeting these basic necessities.
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