Insurance Industry is Simply a Parasite Feeding on the US Health System

[NorthCarolina]

Insurance Industry is Simply a Parasite Feeding on the US Health System

By Dave Lindorff

As the country contemplates a major reform and restructuring of the way we run our national health care system (if it can even be called that), it needs to be pointed out that the mammoth health insurance industry is nothing but a parasite on that system.

Health insurance companies add zero value to the delivery of health care. Indeed, they are a significant cost factor that sucks up, according to some estimates such as one by the organization Physicians for a National Health Program, as much as 31 percent of every dollar spent on medical services (a percentage that has been rising steadily year after year).

Insurance companies are damaging in more ways than simply cost, though.

They also actively interfere in the delivery of quality medical care, as anyone who has had to battle with some “nurse” on the phone at an insurance company to get required pre-authorization for needed procedure can attest.

<snip>

Now these medical system parasites are suddenly running scared, because it is clear that if everyone in America is to be guaranteed health insurance coverage—a promised goal of the new administration of President Barack Obama, and, according to polls, the desire of a large majority of the American people—they are going to stand exposed as a costly impediment to achieving that goal.

<snip>

If we were to simply extend Medicare to cover everyone in America, we would essentially have the Canadian model of health care (which, it should be pointed out, costs half what we pay in America for health care when private insurance and government programs are added together). As with current Medicare, the government would pay for treatment, with private doctors and hospitals providing the care, and with the government negotiating the permissible charges. That, in a nutshell, is what “single-payer” means—the government is the single payer for all health care. It doesn’t mean, as the right-wing critics claim in their scaremongering propaganda, that people would be forced to use certain doctors and certain hospitals. Far from it. That’s what private HMOs do.

Medicare is efficient (only 3.6% of Medicare’s budget goes to administrative costs, compared to 31% for health care delivered through private insurance plans), its clients like it, and doctors and hospitals accept it.

<snip>

Read the entire article here: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41062

[av8rdave]

1. Great article

The best possible health care plan, IMO, would be a government administered single payer system that bypasses the insurance industry altogether. There will always be some administrative costs associated with running any health care system. A commercial, for-profit system just guarantees that those costs will be higher.

[BanzaiBonnie]

3. Because big business is out of control

I am so angry over this health non-care issue that I could spit nails.

[SPedigrees]

4. What Bonnie said. nt

[Lasher]

2. One argument in favor of insurance company participation...

is that they help ensure people only get treatment they need. In other words,

CLAIM DENIED!

[Botany]

5. Time to shut down "the for profit health care industry"

they are leaches who take and take and take money but fight like the devil when they have to pay.

[av8rdave]

8. There are certain things that should NEVER be for profit

Health care is one of them!

[Botany]

11. pay the doctors, the nurses, the techs, the hospital admin, and so on ...

.... but get rid of the insurance companies they add to the costs and work
24/7 not to pay for the treatment that their customers get.

Let them insure homes, cars, life, biz, and farms put they need to get out of
health care.

[av8rdave]

14. Exactly!

:thumbsup:

[FiveGoodMen]

16. +1!

:applause:

[nolabels]

30. There is a trifecta of gougers bleeding us dry of our funds and our blood

The pharmaceuticals and the hospital corporations are also at the troff here


Why are hospital profits so high

Hospital corporations and their record profits are the leading cause of soaring health care costs, surpassing even insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

Hospital corporations increase profit in two ways that hurt Oregon families: by charging higher prices and by reducing access to less profitable services. The Solution: Affordable, Accessible & Accountable Health Care.
(snip)
http://seiuaction.org/seiu49/alert-description.tcl?alert_id=4670747

[bemildred]

6. Word. nt

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. Ummmm......

Not defending insurtance companies here but drug companies, medical equipment makers and providers, hospitals, health care providers and health care workers are also part of the problem. Runaway juries and hired gun tort litigators add to the problem.

The biggest obstacle to health care reform? The citizens of this country. People in this country suffer and die everyday because they do not have access to even minimum levels of care. We care enough to acknowledge the problem and bitch about it. We do not care enough to do much more than that. If we did, it would not be happening.

[Djinn]

22. every western nation

can manage to provide it and they still deal with drug companies (check out the Australian PBS fights for example) hired gun lawyers and all the rest of it.

Sort of agree on your second point, many Americans haven't cared to do much about it, but millions more are duped by your government/media that any kind of national health will have you begging bureaucrats for treatment in hospitals that resemble something out of horror film. When the progressive poster boy "change" candidate calls it "socialised medicine" you've got a long way to go

[Lugnut]

9. K&R

I wish I could recommend this a thousand times.

[Laelth]

10. Um, yes. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Schema Thing]

12. Amen. The provide actuarial service - but for all the wrong reasons

I can hire an actuarial, I don't need a parasitic succubus to go along with that actuarial.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Single-payer means NOBODY stands between you and your doctor

Here in Canada, when someone gets sick or injured, we go to a doctor or hospital. We DON'T have to deal with a "government bureaucrat" or a corporate "representative" in order to get the treatment we need.

We just get it. Quickly, efficiently and caringly. No paperwork. No negotiations. Zero bills..

Only DOCTORS, NURSES and NON-PROFIT HOSPITAL BOARDS run our health care system.

It's always baffled me why people think health insurance companies are even NECESSARY. They're not.
They're an extraneous layer of obstruction in YOUR way, sometimes ACTIVELY PREVENTING you from getting the attention you need.

Health insurance companies stand between you and your doctor. And they're not doing you any favors.

[Raster]

18. This is the post I wish I could recommend A THOUSAND TIMES OVER!

Health insurance companies are NOT even NECESSARY.
They're an extraneous layer of obstruction in YOUR way, sometimes ACTIVELY PREVENTING you from getting the attention you need.

Health insurance companies stand between you and your doctor. And they're not doing you any favors.

Health insurance companies = parasites. Any questions?

[Canuckistanian]

19. Thanks, and remember....

This is coming from someone who LIVES in a country where healthcare is considered a RIGHT, not a PRIVILEGE.

And any politician who threatens that right is toast.

[Djinn]

23. Down here too

In Australia the right wing would LOVE to abolish our national health but if they even hinted at it they'd have less chance of being elected to office than NAMBLA

[Fire1]

15. The insurance industry is a racket across the board!! Period.

[glinda]

17. Husband and I paid thousands to Insurance Companies that ripped us off! I hate them.

If we had the money that we gave them we would have had our home paid off or my surgery done.

[Djinn]

20. unfathomable

that so many people in the richest nation on earth go without basic healthcare because they can't afford it, and so many others are paying up to 5 times as much for healthcare as people in other western countries are (not to mention several piss poor nations)

It's going to take ACTION - whether you go the civil disobedience route or rioting,the insurers aren't going to give up that cash cow without a fight. Obama and the Democrats are thoroughly bought and sold on this one, you'll need to fight THEM too.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

21. K&R

[Djinn]

24. Kicking

[redqueen]

25. We need HR 676.

IMO anyway.

[NorthCarolina]

26. I think a majority of American's agree with you n/t

[kleec]

27. Kick

Our Canadian neighbors actually know what they are talking about! I asked my reps why this country has such a problem with health care coverage while our neighbors and like countries have no problem with this issue. The response was........no answer to that! Really makes you proud!

:grr:

[jwirr]

28. I agree whole heartedly. These insurance companies were the ones

that killed to changes when Hillary tried it. Can we get this damn thing passed without including them? I think that is the question. It is also why Howard Dean is going to lead the fight to keep the Medicare option in the law. AIG is just the tip of insurance greed. I am not sure how we can get around this stumbling block the insurance companies are putting up. The people of the US know that we need single payer. It is our congresspersons who probably know but are too afraid to fight it.

[NorthCarolina]

29. Can we get health care passed without including insurance companies depends

on who ultimately controls the public discussions on health care. The MSM will continue to associate Universal Health Care to France (France is considered evil/anti-American by many American's so this works to the advantage of the media to discredit the best rated health care program in the world) and insinuating there is something less than desirable about that connection, and then follow by indicating that a majority of American's are against this solution.

Those of us that do not depend on the MSM for 100% of our information know full well that health care in France is ranked far ahead of the US, just as we know that the majority of American's in fact DO favor Universal health care. Unfortunately, in the end the corporate media will likely rule the day, private insurance will be the big winner, and main stream America will once again take it up the wazoo.

[tomm2thumbs]

31. great read!

thanks for posting