The Nightmare of Universal Health Care

[Jackpine Radical]

The whole purpose of a health insurance company is to collect fees from the insured and to distribute as much as possible of those funds to the executives and owners of the insurance company. This is done by several means--for example, by increasing the cost of the insurance premiums, by denying and restricting services, and by reducing or withholding payments to providers after they deliver authorized services. Health insurance companies are among the most efficient methods in our economic system for transferring wealth from the lower classes to its rightful owners, the wealthy.

It should be clear to anyone who thinks about it that any single-payer, universal health-care plan would totally defeat the whole purpose of health insurance. The “owners” of the system would be the public at large. The executives would either be government employees or bureaucrats operating under the government’s thumb, who would be perversely motivated to provide actual services to the insured.

In fact, the whole enterprise would end up frittering away virtually all the money put into it on providing care for the wretched masses rather than enriching its owners. Moreover, as experience in the rest of the industrialized world shows, once any such system gets put in place, it will be virtually impossible to ever return to a normal and sane profit system, because the public will very quickly become addicted to the idea of getting health care that actually meets their tedious little needs rather than being satisfied with whatever the insurance companies decide to let them have.

[el_bryanto]

1. So would you say that Universal Health Care is something to be feared?

Would panicking be a good idea?

Bryant

[Javaman]

3. I guess you are missing the sarcasm gene. nt

[el_bryanto]

11. What is this sarcasm you speak of?? n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Oh, indeed universal health care is to be feared.

Panic would be appropriate. Universal coverage s even worse than the Employee Free Choice Act, and we already know that EFCA has the potential to bring down our entire civilization.

[el_bryanto]

9. Seems like our civilization is pretty fragile n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Very fragile, very delicate. We must always guard it carefully

from the depredations of the barbarians.

A barbarian is anyone whose income is not in the top 0.1%.

[el_bryanto]

20. Hmmmmm. I'm not sure but I think i might be a barbarian. n/t

[BeFree]

6. Yes: Fear it.

We must keep profits in the hands of a select few. The more they profit from sick people the more they make. The more sick people we have, the more profits they make. Profits from providing, or rather, taking the money but not providing, means more profits and everyone knows profits are King!

[RufusTFirefly]

14. Good health is anti-business

No patriotic citizen would want to jeopardize American business for the sake of a bunch of people who are all going to die anyway.

[BeFree]

17. Yep

Better that we distribute our wealth into the hands of a few before we die rather than let it be distributed among everyone while we're all alive. What's better, a 2 cent profit to millions or a $100 profit to just a few?

[nxylas]

22. Why does John Conyers hate America?

Is he a bad man?

[Jackpine Radical]

24. Yes. He is a bad man.

He wants to hurt the profits of the deserving wealthy.

[tavalon]

29. Be afraid, be very afraid.

[peace13]

2. Medicare seems to hump along.

Just an observation. I noticed that the Medicare patients were getting their flu shots while I was left to question who would pay for mine. Go figure.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. See? Youi make my point for me.

Medicare pisses away its money on providing services, while a good competitive health care system makes profits by refusing to pay for something. That's capitalism at its finest--to make a profit while doing nothing.

[rurallib]

7. 'cept for that medicare-plus or whatever that privatized crap Bush sold

talked to some mighty sorry folks last summer that fell for that one. But of course being Americans, they lumped it all under Medicare and blamed Medicare

[old mark]

8. A few years ago, in a DR's waiting room, I found and read a copy of

a magazine called "Physician's Travel and Leisure".

The first full page ad was for Gulfstream private jets, and there were various ads for real estate in the Carribean as well as a report on a new Duccatti motorcycle with a base price over $35,000.

I think the idea that every doctor MUST become a multi-millionaire should be re-examined, too.

mark

[Jackpine Radical]

27. Without justifying the income of some specialists, which can top a mil a year,

I must say that I have less trouble with their incomes than I do woth the CEOs of the big providers, the big drug companies, and the big insurance cos/HMSs.

The average specialist makes maybe $200k, the average family practitioner maybe $120K--lots of money in my eyes, but not insanely overcompensated.

[peace13]

10. You have got to be joking. n/t

[woo me with science]

12. You should just give up.

Your OP is waaaaay over the collective head with implied versus stated meaning.

Must be the teachers' fault.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. I am gently guiding poor lost souls to enlightenment.

At least they think there's something wrong with what I say. There are websites where my stuff would just blend in with the general run of commentary.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. If you want I can even point our misguided souls to them

:evilgrin:

Perhaps then they will realize that this is main stream thinking in some places....

Oh and down with the masses damn it! If we pay for their care, it's waste!

[Laelth]

13. Well said. That's it in a nutshell. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Bake]

15. A nightmare indeed!

Oh, the humanity!!

Excellent OP.

Bake

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. A nightmare, exactly - for the medical insurance moguls.

[backscatter712]

21. Damned straight!

How are we executives supposed to afford to upgrade to a 250 ft. yacht if the rabble demands our money go to heart transplants instead!

Can you believe that?

[Demeter]

23. Right ON!

[lib_wit_it]

25. Yeah, really. It would be so wrong if our country began protecting citizens from disease. Only

terrorists count as threats.

[tavalon]

28. Insurance and big pharma

Two great tastes that go great together!!!:eyes:

[JuniperLea]

31. Yup...

Big Pharma would never allow us to get "too" healthy... who would they sell all the drugz to?

[Naturyl]

30. Oh Noez!

K&R. :)