rc3.org Strong opinions weakly held

If we repealed all laws prohibiting health insurance companies from competing across state lines, I wonder if that would really lead to more competition? Or would it just lead to further consolidation and even more lessening of consumer choice? The consumer in this case being the employer, of course, since employees don’t often get to choose unless you count “super-expensive unpredictable private insurance” as a choice.

Posted by Thud on 17 August 2009 @ 1pm

One thing I’d love to see happen is to remove the Certificate of Need process that 36 states still use. As a Wake county resident, it’s very easy to see that CoN is just used to reward the establishment and prevent new entries into the market. It’s really a joke to watch providers fight over 40 hospital beds in a county that has grown by 250,000 people over the past 8 years.

I’d also love to know why Obama never proposed cutting the $136 million/day waste that exists in Medicare/aid when he was a Senator. If it exists today, why not cut it today? I doubt there would be any opposition to that bill.

Posted by Jeff on 17 August 2009 @ 2pm

I read something the other day that really illustrated how much better Obama understands the health care issue than he did when he started campaigning for President. (It was about an SEIU forum that focused solely on health care and how badly Obama did.) Obama was not a health care expert when he started out, but seems to have become one in service to getting elected President.

Posted by Rafe on 17 August 2009 @ 2pm

A large portion of the waste in Medicare is Medicare Advantage, which pays a 17% subsidy to private insurers to provide the same services that Medicare itself provides. That amounts to perhaps $10 or $20 billion a year in itself.

Given that Bush passed the damn thing in the first place, a bill to repeal it would have been useless while he was still President. On top of which the same group of industry-aligned Senators that are currently standing in the way of reform now would’ve definitely opposed it. So yes, there would’ve been opposition to that bill.

Posted by Jacob Davies on 17 August 2009 @ 3pm

Look, I do not mind paying for health insurance. In fact, I feel that those who can afford to pay, should. The problem I have is that it is just too freaking expensive. Health care costs for self-employed, unemployed and small business are freaking expensive. It’s very very difficult to pay a mortgage and health insurance or pay for rent and health insurance.

For instance, I was recently laid off and I chose to participate in my company’s COBRA plan, which is a shockingly high amount of $2100/month. This is ridiculous! Even with the Federal COBRA subsidy of 65% I am paying $721/mo for my family of three. This is still too much! Sadly, this is a better deal than buying private insurance.

This is what needs to be fixed. I don’t care who gets my money, I just want it to be more affordable and not some stripped-down, no-prescriptions, high deductible, bullshit piece-of-shit plan that many people are being forced to buy because they have no other choice.

And don’t even get me started on the pre-existing conditions bullshit. That’s just fucking evilness from the profit-maximizing insurance companies who can’t get their heads out of their asses long enough to realize that “health insurance provider does not equal health care provider”.

Posted by Cameron Barrett on 17 August 2009 @ 5pm