Monday, September 21, 2009

John Stossel: Insurance Makes Healthcare Far More Expensive

Posted by Common Sense Joe at 1:15 PM
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2 comments:

dan said...

This is very subtle propaganda, again an example of how they brainwash you, 20/20 comes from a corporate owned network so you know their bias from the get go...they give you a fact doctors in the USA are overwhelmed by the paperwork they are forced to deal with because of the health insurance industry, this obviously impacts on the quality of care given (less time for the doctor/manager) and the cost of care (4 employees to handle paperwork)....now that's true, those are facts...yet here is where the propaganda comes in, this is where they brainwash you...they use logic to make you believe that if the gov't were handling insurance it would be even worse, even more paperwork...yet that's not true, Doctors in France for example don't have anyone doing the paperwork, there isn't any, the only paper work is a little green card you have to show your doctor with a magnetic band that he swipes into a computer and he's paid immediately the gov't part of the insurance. If he or she is an expensive doctor, you may have to pay a supplement, which is usually less than 20 euros, but you have to do the paperwork, not your doctor, yet you don't really do any extra paperwork cause the gov't takes care of that part for you too, your SS number on your green card is coordinated with any supplemental private insurance you may have and that is automatically transferred to your private insurance company that is controlled and regulated by the gov't, making sure they keep their costs down (at least when the left is in power, though these costs have gone up since the right took power). In the end, in France you've paid nothing to your doctor if he's charging only what the gov't says he should charge, or you pay a little more cash or check, if he or she charges more than gov't rates, which all doctors are free to do, yet competition for patients amongst doctors usually means the consumer has a choice of doctors that don't charge more, or much more, and often you get the same care, whether you pay for an expensive doctor or standard rate doctor, just because they charge more doesn't mean they're necessarily more competent, in France reputation is what counts. Furthermore, the taxes per person for this health care system are less than 200 euros per year and if you have private insurance on top of that its usually never more than 200 or 300 euros either so you pay a max of 400 to 500 euros per year total for total coverage for anything and can see any doctor you please whenever you want no waiting lines and the best quality care in the world, if it works in France why couldn't it work in the USA?

It should be even cheaper in the USA cause the population is larger. It has worked in France like this for over 30 years, except that in the beginning when socialists had the power, everything was covered by the gov't, no private insurance at all, now that the right have been in power for a while, the private insurance industry was born and has grown slowly but surely, yet the people are now starting to complain so we'll see how long that lasts.

As for the food analogy, though logical on the surface, it too is propaganda, people don't go to the hospital to have expensive cancer treatments when they don't have cancer...it just doesn't happen. It used to be the system in France was abused a bit, women in the past would have cosmetic breast surgery for free, old people thermal spa vacations for free, etc., but the gov't put a stop to that, it no longer reimburses those things unless considered a real health need, like a young women who lost a breast through cancer and needs a replacement, that's still covered... but for women with just small but healthy breasts they have to pay out of their own pocket if they want bigger breasts. Cosmetic surgery is only covered if considered a real health need.

Joe I'm curious did you show this to show an example of brainwashing or do you really believe Stossel?

September 22, 2009 at 3:37 AM
dan said...

The guy who runs whole foods is an opportunist, he charges an arm and a leg to get healthy food when he could charge far less, in France all food is like whole foods you don't have to go to a special store to buy grass fed beef, or chicken that hasn't been tortured in prison like conditions, or organic fruits and vegetables, in France you can buy good healthy food at reasonable prices , why? because the people won't accept anything else otherwise they protest, they vote with their wallets, they refuse to buy junk food because its way cheaper so farmers who grow good stuff stay in business and don't go bankrupt, keeping competition alive.

However the idea of food insurance, why not? It wouldn't allow you to buy grass fed beef at hamburger prices, insurance just doesn't work that way, however it could allow a family that just lost its income to continue eating well, if it had the insurance, for example if before they spent 200 dollars a week at whole foods and now they could only afford 50 dollars a week at Wall Mart, if their food insurance covered job loss, they would get 150 dollar per week supplement from their insurance company, food insurance makes more sense to be run by private than health insurance which is better run by gov't.

September 22, 2009 at 3:37 AM

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