Health Care

[Ghoulish Delight]

Our current employer-provided health care is a bad model. HMOs are somewhat of a failed experiment. They've been used in ways that were never really intended and it's driven costs out of control.

What I'd like to see is, as Pan suggested, a minimum level of coverage provided to all citizens, and with the ability to pay for "better" services. And I see that ability to pay taking the form of pre-tax medical expense accounts, and a system that I don't know the name for but it's essentially a collective bargaining arrangement where several businesses get together and instead of providing insurance for their employees, they negotiate with health care providers for heavily discounted services. This way, no one is paying premiums, you simply pay for what you need, but the guarantee of business lets the providers keep the prices down.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Why does our healthcare suck? Malpractice suits (and the required insurance), for one.

HMOs used to work. They don't anymore. I was raised within the HMO system, and I always got what I needed. I guess that was before the greed took over. As noted in a previous post, shareholders get upset when the cycle of ever-increasing profits is interrupted. "I know people aren't getting the care they need, but darn it, the share price went down!" Um, nobody but you cares about that? The rest of us just want to be able to see a doctor!

Stock price *will* go up and down. Deal with it.

We have the best health care that money can buy. :: sigh ::

I saw something once on tv about a group of doctors that priced themselves at a reasonable rate, and refused all insurance. You go in, pay your $25 and you're good. It was working for them.

I do like the idea of medical co-ops, where the group of docs bands together. I don't think doctors are any happier with how difficult our system is to operate.