But this plan does not allow power hungry people to satisfy their appetites for power and complete domination of other people.

One thing I think is important is that based on most everything I've seen, in the days before medicare and medicaid doctors regularly treated patients for either no charge or reduced rates if they could not afford the full rates.

Let's not forget, this "healthcare" insurance is just for people who don't have insurance, you can keep your private insurance....of course if that were truly the case the govt would be providing incentives to keep people out of the govt option but since they want to control everyone, that's not what the plan is. 

@JJ_Ames - I read an article that said in Europe they are having lotteries to sign onto primary care physicians due to rationing.  Yes, if you win the lottery you can actually have a family doctor.  What a concept!  grrrr

I been sick But I am felling better.

@ProvokingThought - Thanks I am so better - I just have a cold.

@ProvokingThought - That is truly scary information about Medicare.

@mrcolorful - wait until I start taking a closer look at government insurance.

@mrcolorful - @AnamcharaConcepts - the number of boomer doctors is very high. This is complex but I will try it quick and use high estimates for medicare and medicaid). Average medicaid reimbursement is about 70% of cost. Average Medicare reimbursement is about 87%. When insurers sit down with doctors and hospitals to negotiate rates the average rate on the table is 130 % of cost.

 Notice I am using fee reimbursement on cost basis. It has to be that high because of  the loss they take from Medicare/Medicaid. Without the private insurance market, the hospitals are in big trouble. So if you talk about cost drivers the government underpaying for services is responsible for a minimum of 25% of the private market fee (low estimate) due to their underreimbursement and that is not figuring in the 90 drag of payments from CMS.

Then add in the non-payments. The one way to positively motivate a doctor is to give them tax relief as a form of payment. Again the schematic is one divised for people who are uninsurable and perhaps a one year window for the non-insured. What this does allow is for the majority of the people who are insurable to keep the plans they have that they like and takes care of the people who the health insurance industry was not designed for. I am sure there would be some type of payment required but I dont think you worry about payment during a cancer patients suffering, you make arrangements on a case by case basis.

I will have other comparison posts upcoming blowing a hole in false assumptions, it is just a matter of time and being able to articulate it a way the average xanagan could grasp it without having spent years in the industry.

@CrunchyMountainMomma - that was how it was designed Heather. They want to be the insurer

Sorry John.  That plan isn't insane, wasteful, or controlling enough for Congress to take interest in.

@ionekoa - I was discussing that exact wisdom the other night. There used to be a game among the homeless to get arrested in late October on a misdemeanor ,spend the winter in jail. get healthy and get out in time for nice weather. Now you wont have to do something stupid, just dont have enough money to pay for the insurance or the tax and you will get free health care and three hots and a cot.
What would we do without government wisdom?
@firetyger - no government wisdom included. No extra federal union members...not popular with bureaucrats. How crazy was I to think on my own? It is government that must think for and care for me-I keep forgetting.

@TheGreatBout - wow. the proverbial apples and pears comparison though.

while I used hyperbole to draw attention to a problem, the fact of the matter is that health insurance was never designed for what we are calling it to do. Health Insurance works for the majority of the people but it does not work for everyone. So when you craft a solution for the ones it does not work for you provide them with care, not insurance.

I spent the majority of my career in contract health care facility operations management and systems analysis. Healthcare reform is no joke to me sir. Locally healthcare reform is something we have accomplished. The working poor are provided care at the free clinic . The people bring a pay stub to show they are working and not insured or underinsured and the care is given and the bill taken care of.

Others are signed up for medicaid and other programs that pay for their needs when they come. The care is what the people need and that is what they get. It is what we feel as a community we should do. It is something that works for us. It would be nice to see the doctors and the hospitals be given a tax incentive to do it in other areas.I can tell you at the fund raisers we have attended it is the doctors wives and local businesses who are seriously supporting the clinic.

What do you think about the feds providing limited tax credits to cover catastrophic health insurance premiums?

@soccerdadforlife - I am not sure I understand. If people are sick, they need treatment. At the point of sickness ability to pay becomes a after the fact consideration. My "for real" suggestion is giving a dollar for dollar tax break on treatment they give people who are sick and can not pay. Then we can go from there. I mean obviously you do not want a system that has no incentive to play by the rules. Even Obama said it is not right that some people do the right thing and take care of themselves and have insurance and others wait until they are sick and show up for treatment.

Personally I like it like we have it here. The three of us have three different plans but anyone in this town can get healthcare at the regional hospital down the street. So we cover the working poor

What do you think about anti-usury laws? I take issue loaning banks money at 0% and then them charging 20-30% on their credit cards. I guess interest rates need to be high enough to cover the inflation in between the time you borrow the money and the time you pay it back and pay above the passbook rate in return for the risk and the time you used the money.

I dont trust estimates about insurance costs, they are always way too low when projected by the government. I am against the superfund insurance plans because insuring them will breed more cost than just treating them. It is a element of human and bureaucratic behavior. People will get less care and it would cost more and be more costly paperwork. This time if people were committing fraud to get tax breaks, theyare defrauding the IRS.

I hope that at least half answers the question or enough to ask a follow-up Tom.  John