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Originally Posted by Terry
Working in the health care industry I am always amazed at how people with insurance are paying for people without insurance. This is truly one of the bigger reasons why our premiums are so expensive today. I am very opposed to Universal Health Care but, something drastic has to take place as there are now 46 million people uninsured in America today and growing every day.
I am more supportive of requiring everyone to have health care insurance. This would cause the costs to go down across the board as we would not be forced to pay for people who do not have insurance. Make the contribution towards their family policy determinate on the amount of their family income.
This solution could work as it requires us to be responsible for ourselves. There needs to be some healthy initiative incentives to get people take better care of themselves. The policy amount is determined by the income level of the family but, also tied in to their lifestyle choices. Obesity, drinking and drugging, lack of exercise, smoking, etc. would cause premiums to increase to make up for the loss of revenue associated for taking care of people who make unhealthy lifestyle choices.
Terry Newton
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I was very surprised by your response, but I could understand it because you are coming from a drug dependence angle. I have to totally disagree with you. "I got mine you get your's" attitude is what created this situation in the first place. It's what even created the Wallstreet crash of 2008. No regulations and no accoutability on behalf of the private medical industry to rake in unlimited cash is what has created these flopsided patient costs. Not the poor or the irresponsible one's.
Most people undergoing spine surgery, much less orthopedic surgery have been taking care of themselves. It's the insurance and medical industry that have been gaming us. It's not the fault of the poor that surgery is so expensive. That's just a false fact that the insurance industry is pushing to get away with stealing money from the insured and the taxpayer.
If you want to solve the medical cost problem in this country you have to look overseas at other industrialized countries and learn from their sucesses and mistakes. Most DO REQUIRE insurance on all citizens, but that is not the reason for high healthcare here since local municipalities in the USA cover hospital and doctor expenses that aren't paid by the patient. That means the hospitals and doctors are getting paid through local taxes. Since state laws require hospitals to take in patients, the hospitals in return require that the local city pay for unpaid bills.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...roundtheworld/
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The Swiss example shows that universal coverage is possible, even in a highly capitalist nation with powerful insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Insurance companies are not allowed to make a profit on basic care and are prohibited from cherry-picking only young and healthy applicants. They can make money on supplemental insurance, however. As in Germany, the insurers negotiate with providers to set standard prices for services, but drug prices are set by the government.
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