commentaries

I don't have a problem profit, the essential food industry is profitable. The problem with Health Care is greed, plan and simple, take advantage of an emotional necessity, GREED!

the real issue is the disconnect between the service and the bill. I had an operation this year and have no idea what the full cost is yet. There is no mechanic walking over and giving an estimate before the repair is made, and no front desk clerk giving the itemized list of expenses before check out. Are all my bills even in yet? I have no clue. So far there have been five separate bills for the one procedure sent out over the course of three months... didn't even realize that radiology had been around while I was out on the table, until that bill showed up. How can I be a savvy consumer when there is no way to know what is going to be charged?

Most people have no idea of the capital investment required to provide health care. Medicines are not just prepared in one's kitchen. Medical devices can take five to ten years to bring to market. The labor pool for the clerical and support services is relatively low while doctors, scientists and even nurses are expenses. Then of course there's the liability issues in a litigious society. By the way, medicines, medical devices, surgeries do not work the same from one person to the other. A life saving therapy for Person-A may kill Person-B. Finally, far too much emphasis is placed on profits which are a snap shot in time. Cash flow is a far better indicator of fiduciary practices as cash flow looks at short term (expenses) and long term (capital investments) obligations.

Author fails to explain why all other industrialized nations, none of which have profit-based health systems, spend far less than us and generally get better results. His focus is entirely on providers with almost none on payers. He could learn from MN which requires health insurers to be non profit and gets a better deal than other states.

Hasn't the writer been listening to the media? The government can do health care better and its going to cost you less (wait my premiums went up in 2013 by 13%), you get to keep your doctor (oh, wait, turns out that isn't true either) and there won't be "Death Panels" (we'll just call them something else). The full facts on the abomination that is Obamacare are starting to trickle out. Congratulations to liberals and their cheerleaders in the media.

lordhawhaw1 Jan. 22, 13 11:34 PM Hasn't the writer been listening to the media? The government can do health care better and its going to cost you less (wait my premiums went up in 2013 by 13%) ==== To what to you attribute the rise in premiums for the 10 yrs prior to the new healthcare act?

lordhawhaw === "Hasn't the writer been listening to the media? The government can do health care better and its going to cost you less (wait my premiums went up in 2013 by 13%)..." The government isn't "doing" healthcare and doesn't control what the insurance companies gouge you in premiums. That is why the ACA is a first step to joining the rest of the civilized world: single-payer healthcare.

I honestly don't know who this author is trying to sell this bunch of b.s. to.... simply, what has happened with the bureaucracy in place right now, is that the price of health care goes up enough to where people just drop out. We did, and not by choice. This is the result of the for profit system. As for Obamacare, we welcome it. It simply cannot be any worse than what is in place for most of the self insured people of the USA right now. We depend on the internet for information, OTC medications, and catastrophic insurance policies that have nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with health care, and are purchased as anti bankruptcy insurance. If this is not the case for a couple people posting, good for you. But for all of us trying to buy our own insurance, we find the health care system in the USA disgusting. I did have to go to the doctor out of necessity, a couple of months ago. The bill arrived, and it was $125 for the office visit. I was with the doctor for less than five minutes and not one test was done. Never again. And please, don't tell me I have to spend more for a decent policy. The one I could afford is an extremely high deductible, that will never ever be met in the course of a year and this consumes one fourth of my income. The obscene thing about this is when I read about the salaries of not only the top CEO of the health care industry but the lesser officers as well. Sorry for having so little faith in America, but there are two Americas out there right now. I used to belong to the one where I had decent group health and couldn't understand why everyone else was hollering. Now I know.

PS... I don't know about for profit, but I do know that our way of buying health care insurance has got to end. Compare group health to car insurance policies. Why can't we buy car insurance as a group to lower our rates? Sound absurd to you? Then why can an obese, drinking, smoking, member of a group get free health insurance through the group? Compare it to group auto... would you want a member in your group to pay the same rate at you do, who has had several speeding tickets, several accidents and a couple DUIs? And yet we tolerate all this because someone is in a group. I'm not and neither are millions of Americans who pay through the nose for our insurance, even though we stay in shape, eat healthy, and rarely if ever go to the doctor. Single payer anyone?

The idea that our overhead-happy version of healthcare makes everything cheaper is astounding. I have relatives and have talked to health care professionals in places like Germany,. the Netherlands, Slovakia, Italy, etc.. They all consider our profit-driven system an expensive joke. The Canadians I know who grumble about their system would, when asked, never trade their system for ours.