A "government bureaucrat" is a great improvement over the current "insurance company bureaucrat"

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

The insurance companies employ "bureaucrats" who may deny or limit coverage in order to maintain or increase corporate profits. I would much prefer to have an employee or contractor of the US government handling my claims who would have no such corporate mandate governing their actions. Private insurance is capricious and often unaccountable with a myriad of conflicts since your care and my care affects their bottom line. How anyone can fail to see this is beyond me.


Some reading for further edification.

http://www.getclaimhelp.com/public-adjuster/10-worst-insurance-companies-deny-claims-raise-premiums.html

[liberal N proud]

1. YES!

[doc03]

2. Try to convince a Republican n/t

[moondust]

3. Also, "users" can't change corporate management.

A small group of people in a boardroom usually decides how things shall be.

But users/voters CAN change the management of a government-run program if it is not performing as it should.

[Wizard777]

4. I'm afraid of government health care becoming MAIF.

We have the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund (MAIF.) This was started as a way to provide auto insurance to people who could not obtain private auto insurance because they were considered high risk. Like being a new driver, being poor, living in a bad part of town, etc. Now MAIF basically functions to keep private policy premiums low. This is because we don't require the insurance companies to do what insurance companies do. That is assume risk. If you are not that lil old lady from Pasadena that only drives her car on Sundays to the church she lives next door to. You're not getting a private policy. Unless you inherit your parents policy if they have one. You are high risk and you get referred to MAIF to pay insanely high premiums. So you might say, Hey! this is great if you have a private policy. Not really. Several of my God children that have moved out of state have had this experience. In Maryland they had MAIF policies. They moved to states that didn't have a state liability pool. Those states actually required the insurance companies to assume and manage Risk. They had to insure everyone or no one. So they went from about 1,500.00 per year MAIF policy to a 600.00 private policy in their new state. With Maryland insurance companies assuming next to no liability because of MAIF. When they moved back to Maryland and transfered their private policy to Maryland. You would think their annual premium would go down. NOPE! It went up by about 20.00 - 40.00.

So I'm afraid of them doing this with health care also. Using the government issued policies as a high risk pool. So they can cherry pick the low risks. Know that the evil of the insurance industry knows no depth. They could even go as far as only insuring genetic line. Your grandparents were never sick, your parents were never sick, so you qualify for a private policy based on your healthy genetic lineage. But if your dad had the Chicken Pox you have to get a high rate/high risk policy from the government based on your unhealthy genetic lineage. Because you'll probably get them too. They'll have to pay for that and possibly even pay for the shingles you could get later in life. If they don't cancel you for getting the chicken pox to avoid the possible claims for shingles later. That money spent on your health care would be better spent on CEO Bonuses or share holder dividends.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. Medicare seems to run very well. My parents are on it

and have had NUMEROUS medical issues - heart bypasses, pacemaker, chronic illness, etc. I have been closely involved in almost all their hospitalizations and procedures and working with their doctors, and it has been nothing but smooth. I know there may be some issues with Medicare, the primary one being that doctors and hospitals would like to see higher pays, and some doctors will not accept patients, but overall it seems to be a well oiled machine.

Our Congress could have been far better guardians of the public dollar if they had passed a drug benefit that allowed negotiating drug price (duh!) instead of FORBIDDING it when they passed the bill.