3 ms·
I agree on all points. However, I have one honest sticking point. It seems to me that the US health insurance industry is a huge job creator (in other words hea
by trcollinson 9y ago
I agree on all points. However, I have one honest sticking point. It seems to me that the US health insurance industry is a huge job creator (in other words health insurance companies employ a lot of people, doctors offices and hospital etc employ a lot of people, all to process insurance). As a very serious question: what happens to these jobs by going to a single payer system? A statistic I found showed health insurance companies alone employee 2.5 million people in the US. They also do provide a massive amount of money to the economy. I would hope that a single payer system would reduce the cost of health insurance administration significantly and thereby reduce the need for these jobs. But what is the macro economic ramification on the US economy and how do we mitigate that? I don't think we can stick our head in the sand and pretend the issue is not a real burden on going to a single payer system. We need to solve it to achieve the goal. If even 50% of those jobs are lost that is a massive surge in US unemployment.
- Mz 9y agoI worked for Aflac for over five years. They do not do major medical. They provide supplemental insurance. When I was there, 75-80% of their income was from their Japanese division. Japan has a single payer system. Most insurance companies have multiple products. When the landscape changes and undercuts some current product, you come up with new ones and retrain your people. Plus, the government would likely hire some of those people to work for it once it took over payments because those people already have HIPAA training, are familiar with Gramm-Leach-Bliley Etc.