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View Full Version : A case for Universal Health Care



Nbadan
06-12-2007, 01:52 AM
Universal social pay health care creates a system with as high or higher standards, much lower costs, and greater coverage than a comparable private insurance system.

Insurance companies make money by not insuring people, who are high risks, but to do this, insurance companies pay big bucks for investigative costs and layer upon layer of bureaucracy. In effect, the best insurance company is the one that can out-compete the others in not doing its job the best. Perverse incentive situations like this are clearly areas where public entities are more efficient than capitalism.

We spend more on health care than any other nation...



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but rank at the bottom in safety and efficiency..


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The screening process is the main reason private health insurers spend a much higher share of their revenue on administrative costs than do government insurance programs like Medicare, which doesn't try to screen anyone out. That is, private insurance companies spend large sums not on providing medical care, but on denying insurance to those who need it most.

Market failure is a term used in economics to describe a situation in which markets do not efficiently allocate goods and services. The term is normally applied by economists to situations where the perceived inefficiency is particularly dramatic, or when it is suggested that non-market institutions (such as government police and fire services) would be more efficient and welfare-enhancing than market solutions. The term is also used to describe situations where market forces do not serve the perceived public interest.

Wild Cobra
06-12-2007, 03:11 AM
Simple charts are often made to represent the wrong story. Can you tell me if:

1) Universal health care in these countries allow multi-million dollar awards to patients when something doesn't go perfect.

2) Do the US numbers include unnecessary surgeries like breast augmentations and other costly procedures that are not covered in universal care.

3) Why do people with money who have universal health care choose to go to other countries for their procedures?

There is some truth in what is said in the fallacies of healthcare and the free market. It is the exception rather than the rule however.

Even a simple doctor visit today is expensive. Emergency room care is even more expensive. They must treat all who go through the emergency rooms, and most cannot pay. The rest of us pay for them already.

How about we talk about what drives the cost so high here in the USA. It is the Lawyers. Litigation. There have been so many litigations against doctors who deliver babies that their insurance rates are in excess of $250,000 a year! You hear about these payouts all the time for one thing or another. That money doesn't come out of thin air. The cost of free market health care would likely be cheaper per capita if we eliminated unwarranted lawsuits. Clear malpractice cases should still be dealt with.

Now tell me. If there is a clear case of malpractice under universal health care, is their a lawsuit and payout? Should we get rid of litigations for those truly wronged in order to make universal health care affordable?