Off Topic Paul Krugman on Health Care Realities

 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31krugman.html?_r=1>

 A taste more at above URL

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"It¹s a funny story ‹ but it illustrates the extent to which health
reform must climb a wall of misinformation. It¹s not just that many
Americans don¹t understand what President Obama is proposing; many
people don¹t understand the way American health care works right now.
They don¹t understand, in particular, that getting the government
involved in health care wouldn¹t be a radical step: the government is
already deeply involved, even in private insurance.

And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at
all.

The key thing you need to know about health care is that it depends
crucially on insurance. You don¹t know when or whether you¹ll need
treatment ‹ but if you do, treatment can be extremely expensive, well
beyond what most people can pay out of pocket. Triple coronary bypasses,
not routine doctor¹s visits, are where the real money is, so insurance
is essential.

Yet private markets for health insurance, left to their own devices,
work very badly: insurers deny as many claims as possible, and they also
try to avoid covering people who are likely to need care. Horror stories
are legion: the insurance company that refused to pay for urgently
needed cancer surgery because of questions about the patient¹s acne
treatment; the healthy young woman denied coverage because she briefly
saw a psychologist after breaking up with her boyfriend.

And in their efforts to avoid ³medical losses,² the industry term for
paying medical bills, insurers spend much of the money taken in through
premiums not on medical treatment, but on ³underwriting² ‹ screening out
people likely to make insurance claims. In the individual insurance
market, where people buy insurance directly rather than getting it
through their employers, so much money goes into underwriting and other
expenses that only around 70 cents of each premium dollar actually goes
to care. "

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 I personally carry two dental plans  as my primary health insurance  of
my spouse   is better.  I have to carry my own dental because if I let
it go we loose all potential  to go back to my own regular health
insurance.  Cost me US $1200 a years for insurance of insurance.

 Bill who wonders why we have a separate dental as the science suggests  
bad dental = bad health.  

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19619191?ordinalpos=5&itool=EntrezSys
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Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

 Bill who putters wrote:

True and government is highly involved in education and both health care
costs and education costs are spiraling out of control.

Does anyone seriously think that even more government involvement is
going to result in better treatment or lower cost?

 wrote:



Yes, two of us do.

Charlie