John Stossel: Health Insurance Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be

[underpants]

This is a hoot. I can't post the whole thing but it is worth a read if only for the humor of it. The analogies alone will make you laugh let alone ...well you will see.

Enjoy.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/print?id=2574980

Anyway, insurance is a terrible way to pay for things. It burdens us with paperwork, invites cheating and, worst of all, creates a moral hazard that distorts incentives. It raises costs by insulating consumers from medicine's real prices.

Suppose you had grocery insurance.

Suppose everyone had transportation insurance.

Suppose car insurance worked that way.

Insurance invites waste. That's a reason health care costs so much, and is often so consumer-unfriendly. In the few areas where there are free markets in health care -- such as cosmetic medicine and Lasik eye surgery -- customer service is great, and prices continue to drop.


Fraud and waste are a concern. When third parties pay, regardless of whether it's government or private insurance, people find it easier and more tempting to cheat. No one spends other people's money as carefully as he spends his own. But "profiteering?" What the heck does that mean? Every company wants to make as much profit as it can. If an insurance company makes "excess" profit, other insurance companies will rush to compete in those areas; therefore prices will fall quickly.

And frankly, I want drug companies to make lots of money. The more they make, the more they invest in drug development that may someday cure my disease or ease my pain.

[mainegreen]

1. Other insurance companies will rush in to compete?

What effing planet is this guy from? The number of companies that offer insurance is shrinking. This is an industry that is stagnating in monopoly driven economics that can't be broken up by that cute capitalistic character of the spunky small underdog. There is no such thing as a small health insurance company. It can't exist and be successful in todays system.

My cat has a better grasp of the fundamental problems of the health care industry than this twit.

[kenny blankenship]

2. See, you're much better off without any health insurance like 50M Merkins

those lucky duckies don't appreciate how fortunate they are not to have to deal with the beeyoorowcratic redtape of having insurance. Isn't insurance kind of a socialist concept anyway? Wouldn't a real American, a true capitalist believer, a winner, prefer to pay for his doctor's bills as he went along incurring them?

[underpants]

6. Exactly- oooh the boogieman of redtape

as opposed to the greentape that we are handing them now.

This ties right into voting and how "Mommy and Daddy" will make it so easy for you that you won't even need to look at the results.

[dflprincess]

3. I love this quote:

"In the few areas where there are free markets in health care -- such as cosmetic medicine and Lasik eye surgery -- customer service is great, and prices continue to drop."

No mention that these are services that are not always medically necessary, but may be more of a personal choice.

Look at drug prices, the more important the drug is to survival or quality of life, the more expensive it is. The new drug that shows promise in treating age related macular degeneraton runs aroung $1,000 per month, even though it's chemical composition is very similar to a cancer drug that has been on the market for years and costs $12/month. (The cancer drug apparently helps some, but not as much with macular dengeration as the new drug).

[underpants]

8. Let's check the CDC site to see how oooh let's say the polio vaccine

came to be
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/events/polio-vacc-50th/#bkgrd

April 12, 1955, was a unique moment in our contemporary culture. That date culminated more than 17 years of research that led to the licensure of the first poliovirus vaccine. The vaccine breakthrough was driven by Jonas Salk and his team of scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and the pioneering field trials led by Thomas Francis Jr. at the University of Michigan. The research was funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, today known as the March of Dimes.

Then of course there is the H5N1 vaccine
http://pandemicflu.gov/general/

and so forth...

This BS about how the drug companies do all this research is laid bare by the stem cell issue-there is no money in that level of research so who does it???? Why WE DO. 60% of new drug research is done at National Institute of Health with our money. It would take some searching but some of that cost (OUR COST) is allowed onto the Rx companys' R&D figures too.

[yurbud]

11. like free market and oil or ag: I wish we had that kind of free market

for teachers.

However much or little work we did, we'd get an extra check directly from the feds for "thinking up new ways to teach" and such.

[rodeodance]

4. i imagine this is from a dimwit who has not worries about coverage!

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. Who is better off the USA or Sweden?

[BootinUp]

7. I can't really refute the logic of greed

He does a very good job of explaining his priorities towards the end.

[greeneyedboy]

9. "that may someday cure my disease"-IF i have insurance.

otherwise, sorry, you're out of luck.

hello, time for universal health care.

[Lindacooks]

10. So I assume that Mr. Stossel doesn't have any insurance?

Since he thinks it's such a rip-off, would it be hypocritcal for him to hold life insurance, or health insurance, or homeowners insurance??

I'm waiting ....


Thought not.

[yurbud]

12. he got enough money to use Bush's system: med savings account:

"See, when my daddy sends my trust fund check, my butler sets aside $10,000 a month for any potential medical needs I got. Then if I don't go to the doctor that month, I got even more for the next month. I don't know why everybody don't do that. Maybe their butler aint as good with money as mine..."

[TrogL]

13. The Canadian health care system has served me just fine

and everybody else I know.

My employer has no access to my medical records.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

14. Oh god, Stossel said something idiotic AGAIN

Whenever that happens I just watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj7uoKifagk

aaaaahhhhhhhhh..... much better.

[FVZA_Colonel]

15. I wonder what he thinks about corporations that insure industrial

equipment, cargo vehicles, and finished products against theft or major damage (from a variety of sources)?

[depakid]

16. The fact that ABC allows this charlatan time on the airwaves

to spew out propaganda and misinform should be grounds for non-renewal of their broadcast licenses.