obama care obama care obama care obama care obama care obama care obama care wins again

[maks]

I don't think anyone thinks it's universal health care

as far as it being a gift to the insurance companies, let's not forget the law calls for government oversight and regulation regarding pricing and a panel must review any premium hikes. They also prevent the insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and will require them to provide coverage regardless of conditions and without a "lifetime spending limit" of coverage. I believe it will also stimulate competition in the insurance industry which will lead to new companies being formed and lower rates for all. I don't foresee any of the insurance companies getting a huge boost out of it considering they already have most people in their pockets and with all the added government regulation stipulations preventing them from maximizing profits at the expense of the people they cover by denying claims and such.

Passing a law that requires 311 million people to purchase your product isn't a gift? Also, if you believe that government oversight and regulation leads to more competition you haven't been paying attention, government regulations are why every community has only one cable company to choose from.

Passing a law that requires 311 million people to purchase your product isn't a gift? Also, if you believe that government oversight and regulation leads to more competition you haven't been paying attention, government regulations are why every community has only one cable company to choose from.

That's a different kind of government regulation designed to prevent national monopolies from forming. The only communities I know of that have one cable company are tiny rural communities, and in that instance, it's only because the companies don't want to spend the money to expand their services to a market that would take a very long time to produce a Return on Investment. I don't think ti really compares to insurance agencies.

[maks]

That's a different kind of government regulation designed to prevent national monopolies from forming. The only communities I know of that have one cable company are tiny rural communities, and in that instance, it's only because the companies don't want to spend the money to expand their services to a market that would take a very long time to produce a Return on Investment. I don't think ti really compares to insurance agencies.

No, you have one choice of companies providing traditional cable service. Things like Uverse are IP based, they're only allowed to exist because technology evolved faster than the laws could stifle it.

[maks]

of course the real irony of all this is that insurance is the reason healthcare is so expensive in the first place

of course the real irony of all this is that insurance is the reason healthcare is so expensive in the first place

It's not the insurance at fault, it's the health care system. They charge tons of money for their services because the products they get from health care and pharmaceutical companies are extremely overpriced and they can get away with it because most people have insurance. Overpriced products pass the expense on to the hospitals, overpaid doctors pass the expense on to the insurance companies and the insurance companies pass the expense on to the customers by jacking up their premiums and denying coverage. That is why i think obamacare might be a decent solution just because I believe it will reduce healthcare costs... ASSUMING the government strictly regulates the insurance agencies so they don't jack up rates. Otherwise it could make health care even more expensive if all these people that were previously denied coverage are now able to get insurance and spend a lot of money.

we have a lot of public hospitals which treat the poor and uninsured for free, and they get government funding, but many of them are closing down or declaring bankruptcy because their costs are too high and the number of uninsured free treatment patients is growing, meaning the public hospitals get no compensation for the cost of their services. A true universal system would solve this problem by pumping the public hospitals with tons of funding and overseeing the prices of health care products and services, but Obamacare should also help these public hospitals by providing more people with insurance.

[maks]

It's not the insurance at fault, it's the health care system. They charge tons of money for their services because the products they get from health care and pharmaceutical companies are extremely overpriced and they can get away with it because most people have insurance. Overpriced products pass the expense on to the hospitals, overpaid doctors pass the expense on to the insurance companies and the insurance companies pass the expense on to the customers by jacking up their premiums and denying coverage. That is why i think obamacare might be a decent solution just because I believe it will reduce healthcare costs... ASSUMING the government strictly regulates the insurance agencies so they don't jack up rates. Otherwise it could make health care even more expensive if all these people that were previously denied coverage are now able to get insurance and spend a lot of money.

we have a lot of public hospitals which treat the poor and uninsured for free, and they get government funding, but many of them are closing down or declaring bankruptcy because their costs are too high and the number of uninsured free treatment patients is growing, meaning the public hospitals get no compensation for the cost of their services. A true universal system would solve this problem by pumping the public hospitals with tons of funding and overseeing the prices of health care products and services, but Obamacare should also help these public hospitals by providing more people with insurance.

The doctors aren't getting the bulk of what you're paying them, the companies that provide their malpractice insurance are. Drugs are expensive because it costs millions to develop them and bring them to market, and no small part of that is getting around the government regulations and paying (again) insurance to protect them from liabilities. Fact is patients in the US are funding the entire R&D to create these drugs, if we were paying Canadian prices there would be no new treatments or cures because there would be no money to invent them. What we really need is tort reform and far less regulations, the federal government isn't good at much of anything, just look at that clusterfuck social security if you want to see how a nationalized healthcare system would play out financially and visit the DMV if you'd like to see how efficiently hospitals would run under a single payer system.