Healthcare Reform, by the Commonwealth Fund

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Enzinw

Pzgmmopm of NJ 7:59PM July 14, 2009

Hmmm... Health Care for All Americans is Simple!
1) Merge Medicare with Medicaide into one single "Income Based" system
for elderly and poor citizens.
2) Require insurance companies to provide the same basic coverage for
all Non-Medicare/Medicaide citizens, regardless of health status, at
affordable rates.
3) Allow insurance companies to profit by offering additional benefits
and options to those who qualify and are willing to pay the difference.
As for Funding...
1) Changing from an "Emergency Treatment" to a "Preventive Care"
system will save local communities billions, maybe even trillions of
taxpayer dollars!
2) Small business will be able to compete globally and hire additional
taxpaying employees!
3) Wealthy seniors will pay their fair share!
4) The tremendous burden on future generations will be greatly reduced!

jpinsatx of TX 9:58AM May 19, 2009

The Insurance companies will still fight it, because they want to be the darling company on wall street, UnitedHealthcare is a good example. Also Wall Street will fight it if they think they will lose profits, especially investment houses. All of them are the cause of our current crisis, they all got too greedy.

Phil McCracken of CA 8:48PM May 29, 2008

The Insurance companies will still fight it, because they want to be the darling company on wall street, UnitedHealthcare is a good example. Also Wall Street will fight it if they think they will lose profits, especially investment houses. All of them are the cause of our current crisis, they all got too greedy.

of CA 8:44PM May 29, 2008

The costs of maintaining several health insurance companies if quite sizeable. Doctors have to keep track and provide information on different forms for each company. Each company reimburses its CEO extravagantly. All together, the costs for the fractionalized system we have is prohibative.

Howard Davis of MD 5:42PM May 14, 2008

Cost will continue to sky-rocket. Health care providers operate without constraints on cost because of lack of market competition. Once while visiting a patient in a hospital I closely watched the operation. It seemed that the hospital employees spend more time wasting time than being productive. I've seen this time and time again. On top of this ...... the insurance companies main function is profits. Yes profits from the injury and illnesses of others. Come on folks ...... don't let the Insurance industry fool you. Put provider waste and excess with Insurance profits ...... it's what we have now. A health care system that is a disgrace Approx. 50 million Americans without health insurance. It is not only a disgrace but criminal activity! It's time to hold the providers accountable for this criminal disgrace.

Stephan Hall of SC 7:51PM May 13, 2008

I agree completely with Dr. Hotti's comments above. And there's more
Most of us have no trouble imagining that our gross stupidity for allowing the direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs is driving the cost of medicine UP (not down, as the corporations deceptively insist). Most of us also know that the AFLAC Duck, the GEICO gecko, and an "800-pound gorilla in the room" are all selling insurance, not something else. Their antics tell you NOTHING useful. Marketing of "choices" in health insurance can and will be taken to a point at least as goofy (at YOUR expense) unless it is outlawed.
Plans must be standardized and corporations must be severely limited on the "choices" they are permitted to offer. A "handful" nationally is plenty. Not hundreds or thousands like in Medicare D. They'll hate it. They'll fight it. And they'll lie to you about it. Get thyselves a full stable of wall-to-wall Democrats and DO NOT BE SOLD NATIONAL NONSENSE on the lies about "choices."

Daniel David of NM 6:33PM May 13, 2008

Don't be surprised about how much money you can save once you get the Health Insurance Industry less involved. They are "insurance" and like all insurance companies, their model is: paying for health care services is a "loss", and avoiding paying for services is a "profit". They spend their administrative overhead, which is considerable, on denying care.
Let the providers decide who needs care and what kind of care is appropriate; just don't pay them on a "fee for service" basis which distorts incentive just as badly as Insurance companies incentives are distorted. Once incentives and the "denial of care" objective are corrected there will be considerable savings, that can now be applied to expand healthcare to "all".
"Queing" that will occur when a "trimmed" system is working at max. efficiency is not so bad as long as the queing is reasonable. We are all quite used to queing, at movies, sports stadiums, driving in rush hour, restaurants, boarding planes etc. etc. If there were enough facilities to avoid queing at these venues, the costs would be prohibitive; we all understand that!

Allan Hotti MD of CA 4:37PM May 13, 2008