[quote=jpinpb]I agree it is an issue of INSURANCE and not healthcare. I remember listening to some argument, I think on KPBS, about whether illegal aliens should have access to this insurance. One side was saying no. The other side was saying yes, b/c more people will lower the insurance and actually cost taxpayers less b/c otherwise the illegal aliens will go to the emergency room and taxpayers will pay for it anyway, only more.
Exactly as ucodegen mentioned about the 30% off on the MRI. Have any of you gone to a doctor w/out insurance and they cut you a break on the price? I say insurance IS the reason healthcare is so expensive.
With regard to bipartisan support, I had posted this on a thread, Nixon’s plan for healthcare reform. I guess Democratic congress was against it. Here we are 35 years later still dealing w/it, only roles reversed.[/quote]
Insurance is the reason that health care costs are so high and quality is subpar (at least 100K deaths from hospital infections/mistakes)
It is well laid out in this long article below which is titled
“How American Health Care Killed My Father”. Highly recommended for anyone who cares to understand the issues.
Simple solution: Require catastrophic insurance for everyone (subsidy for poor) and have users pay (edit-) cash for everything else. This will increase competition, increase quality of care, and reduce costs.
If you don’t believe this, come to dark side and I will show the best (simple, low-to-medim risk) investment over last 25 years. Yep, Vanguard Healthcare Fund, nearly 17% annualized return over last 25 years by my friend Edward P. Owens. There has been a lot of profit made in that sector that came from the insured.
