Health Care reform bill reactions

[Boozy]

FashionLad = Most Informed Person I Personally Know Regarding Health Care Reform.

[Nyoibo]

I think that the US needs to start regulating the fricking health insurance industry, I was looking at getting health insurance today and here, for top level hospital and extras cover it would still only cost me about $220 a month, $350-$500 or more is ridiculous.

[Dreamstalker]

Ditto. When the state's low-income program was dicking me around (I was dropped with no explanation in October, just recently got reinstated) I was looking at private so-called low-income plans. The premiums were (for someone with very little money coming in) amazing--the insurers must think that everyone has secret bank accounts to be able to pay their premiums plus rent/utilities/etc.

[Jason]

I think that the US needs to start regulating the fricking health insurance industry, I was looking at getting health insurance today and here, for top level hospital and extras cover it would still only cost me about $220 a month, $350-$500 or more is ridiculous.

When does regulation ever lower cost. Cost is constant, just by forcing a price on service doesn't effect cost of service. This will ruin the entire insurance market..... Watch the government will soon run health care (public optioin).

[Fashion Lad!]

When does regulation ever lower cost. Cost is constant, just by forcing a price on service doesn't effect cost of service. This will ruin the entire insurance market..... Watch the government will soon run health care (public optioin).

A lack of regulation caused our banking crisis. Now it's harder and more expensive to get a loan.

[Jason]

A lack of regulation caused our banking crisis. Now it's harder and more expensive to get a loan.

Wrong.
It was Congress telling banks to give loans to people who couldn't afford them that case the banking crisis. The only reason it would be "harder and more expensive" would be banks are actually looking at credit worthiness (sp?) now.

[Fashion Lad!]

Wrong.
It was Congress telling banks to give loans to people who couldn't afford them that case the banking crisis. The only reason it would be "harder and more expensive" would be banks are actually looking at credit worthiness (sp?) now.

Partly.

In 2000 Congress passed legislation that clarified that certain kinds of financial instruments were not regulated by Commodity Futures Trading Commission and one of them was credit default swaps which was a major player in the financial/banking crisis.

[Nyoibo]

When does regulation ever lower cost. Cost is constant, just by forcing a price on service doesn't effect cost of service.

The point is the price of the service isn't that high, the profit margins are and that's what'smaking the prices so high, regulation does lower cost, when the regulating body actually has the testicular fortitude to enforce it.

[Boozy]

Price ceilings do lower prices. But they also tend to lower supply. I think that's what Jason was referrring to.

In the case of artificially inflated prices or market bubbles, a bit of regulation can sometimes be helpful.

Anyone who believes that prices are perpetually and inextricably linked to supply-and-demand need only look to the recent real estate bubble to know that's not always true.

Health care isn't a "bubble", but there is something wrong with US health care costs. It shouldn't cost three times as much for an MRI in the US as it does anywhere else in the developed world, but it does. I'm not terribly informed about this issue, but even I know that something is rotten in the state of Denmark....

[protege]

Price ceilings do lower prices. But they also tend to lower supply. I think that's what Jason was referrring to.

That's exactly what happens--look at went on the Bronx during the 1970s. At the time, the city had rent controls in place (and still does). As such, many landlords couldn't (or wouldn't) maintain their buildings because of them. Quite a few simply let their buildings fall apart or torched them for the insurance money.

[radiocerk]

As someone who deals with insurance companies on a daily basis, the way the system is currently being run is inefficient and greed-based.

Insurance companies make their money by charging people their monthly premiums, and then not paying any of it out. I don't understand why companies that consistently make huge profits every year are constantly denying health care. And of course, you always have the option of paying for the entire cost of anything yourself, but for any treatment more complicated than a routine checkup or a first-aid type injury (broken bone, or something of that sort) the cost is completely ridiculous.

Medicaid and Medicare are overtaxed, primarily by people getting their "routine" health care at ERs. I have see large numbers of prescriptions come through my pharmacy for ibuprofen, mucinex, and other things that would be better handled through normal doctors. And, of course, ERs also give out routine health care to people who are uninsured, because they can't turn them away. And who pays for these costs? Increased premiums, increased cash prices, and increased taxes, because many hospitals have to be subsidized just to stay in business.

Health insurance companies need to be regulated, and so should pharmaceutical companies. Even if we did nothing more than eliminating the anti-trust exemptions health care gets. And yes, they have an anti-trust exemption. Kaiser, Blue Cross, Cigna, etc all playing Monopoly with our health.

We also need a new way of looking at health in the US. Our health system is run on the "magic pill" theory. Doctors are not trying to lower cholesterol, weight, blood pressure through lifestyle changes. That's too hard. Anyway, they get more money if they just give out a prescription for a pill.

I for one, work in a business where we would be happy to see nationalized health care. If everyone was covered, and all through the same insurance, it would cut down on "doctor shopping" and people filling narcotics at multiple pharmacies and paying cash for it. And that alone would make this country a little healthier.