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I feel a great frustration by those who argue against healthcare reform in the US, because most of the arguments against a socialized system resonate with me, b
by macksd 5y ago
I feel a great frustration by those who argue against healthcare reform in the US, because most of the arguments against a socialized system resonate with me, but they also seem to be arguments against the current system.
I would be concerned about moral hazard leading to people not taking care of their own health. And yet, America has a disproportionately bad problem with weight and cardiovascular health. I get a discount for not smoking, sure, but I don't get a discount for going to the gym multiple times a week and adjusting my diet to keep my weight goals. I seem to be sharing a risk pool with a lot of very willingly unhealthy people.
I would be concerned about a DMV-like experience when trying to take care of my health care, except, that's what we have now. Bad incentives are created for providers, for insurers, and really it's all of them against me. And it's hardly a free market when there's still effectively a complete lack of transparency over pricing, and I can't very well shop around for where the ambulance should take me.
I'm very pro-immigration as long as we have some security / documentation process that people follow that we actually enforce, because I don't want a social healthcare system that just gets abused by people who have no intention of ever being a formal part of the system that funds it. Except we already have a drain on hospitals in many states where they have to provide life-saving care but will never get reimbursed for it. And that's exactly what Romney's major argument was in defense of his state's healthcare law, but Republicans ripped him to shreds over it.
I just don't understand what Republicans are arguing for here because the current system is not remotely giving any of the benefits of a free market and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon. If the current system is privately-run healthcare, why is everyone so convinced that the vaccine is a government conspiracy? It seems to me we don't have either ideal, so we're stuck with a half-measure that isn't really working for anyone but insurers.
- syshum 5y ago>>> but I don't get a discount for going to the gym multiple times a week and adjusting my diet to keep my weight goals. I seem to be sharing a risk pool with a lot of very willingly unhealthy people. Government prevents that, the very people that push for government run healthcare, pushed to ensure all persons pay the same rates. The only discounts allowed by law are for Smoking. Your employer can not legally discount your health plan for anything other than smoking. There are some loops holes for "health incentives" billed as bonus' >>If the current system is privately-run healthcare, Its not.
- macksd 5y ago>> Its not. No and that's really my point - we have this heavily regulated mix of public and private that I don't think anyone fully understands, makes it a nightmare for consumers, gives a heavy advantage to existing players, has massive amounts of overhead, etc. People who say things about wanting a free market don't seem to be pushing us in that direction, only pushing against reform. I recently switched to an HDHP / HSA and I feel like it's much better. One of the problems is that insurance has stopped being about risk management because (almost) everyone has it and wants it to cover everything, so it's just a game of group negotiating on a group tab. I had the plan because my company negotiated it with the insurance company who had rates and networks negotiated and I was just supposed to go to the doctor and now pay whatever else was left but who knows what that was. But now my doctor's not even in-network. With an HSA, I can just pay her directly and forget the rest of it.