Even putting the humanitarian concerns aside, the way the US healthcare system is structured is insane, guaranteed to cost the most and deliver the least.
In business school, when I took my first course in organizational behavior, the number one rule I learned is that you get what you reward. Don't hope for "A" while rewarding "B". If you're not getting the results you want from your employees, take a hard look at what you're rewarding and punishing.
Our healthcare system is run by for-profit health insurance companies. These companies make money by NOT providing healthcare. They have a vested interest to deny coverage, to stonewall, to delay, to knock sick people off the roles, to deny care for pre-existing conditions and to make doctors jump through as many administrative hoops as possible to delay reimbursement.
So what do we think is supposed to happen? Are we hoping that these for-profit health insurance companies will take care of sick people out of the goodness of their hearts? Companies are soulless money-making machines, nothing more. They can be expected to move toward making more money. This can be a good thing if that goal coincides with the good of the economy but not in this case.
It's like we've put foxes in charge of the chicken coup and hope the foxes will take care of the chickens instead of eating them. Then we talk of band-aid "reforms" which involve trying to regulate the foxes so they don't eat so many chickens. But foxes are clever, as are for-profit corps, and they will find ways around the regulations. Foxes won't take care of the chickens because it's not in their nature. For-profit corps won't forego making money to take care of sick people because it's not in their nature.
Our system can't be reformed. It is so fundamentally broken that it must be overhauled. Healthcare is a community function, not a product. It needs to be run by the government the same way that other community functions are.
Let me also add that as a business owner, I would happily pay more in taxes as an alternative to the gouging I get from the insurance companies. Government healthcare is actually more efficient, since it cuts out the useless middle man of the heath insurance companies, so my new taxes are bound to be lower than the premiums I would no longer have to pay. I would save money under such a system.
I'm not making light of the humanitarian side and the stories of suffering averted in other countries (or how I had to deplete my life savings when my asthmatic wife was taken to the ICU when a chest cold turned into pneumonia). I'm just pointing out that even from the standpoint of the cold numbers on a spreadsheet, government run healthcare is much more preferable.
In business school, when I took my first course in organizational behavior, the number one rule I learned is that you get what you reward. Don't hope for "A" while rewarding "B". If you're not getting the results you want from your employees, take a hard look at what you're rewarding and punishing.
Our healthcare system is run by for-profit health insurance companies. These companies make money by NOT providing healthcare. They have a vested interest to deny coverage, to stonewall, to delay, to knock sick people off the roles, to deny care for pre-existing conditions and to make doctors jump through as many administrative hoops as possible to delay reimbursement.
So what do we think is supposed to happen? Are we hoping that these for-profit health insurance companies will take care of sick people out of the goodness of their hearts? Companies are soulless money-making machines, nothing more. They can be expected to move toward making more money. This can be a good thing if that goal coincides with the good of the economy but not in this case.
It's like we've put foxes in charge of the chicken coup and hope the foxes will take care of the chickens instead of eating them. Then we talk of band-aid "reforms" which involve trying to regulate the foxes so they don't eat so many chickens. But foxes are clever, as are for-profit corps, and they will find ways around the regulations. Foxes won't take care of the chickens because it's not in their nature. For-profit corps won't forego making money to take care of sick people because it's not in their nature.
Our system can't be reformed. It is so fundamentally broken that it must be overhauled. Healthcare is a community function, not a product. It needs to be run by the government the same way that other community functions are.
Let me also add that as a business owner, I would happily pay more in taxes as an alternative to the gouging I get from the insurance companies. Government healthcare is actually more efficient, since it cuts out the useless middle man of the heath insurance companies, so my new taxes are bound to be lower than the premiums I would no longer have to pay. I would save money under such a system.
I'm not making light of the humanitarian side and the stories of suffering averted in other countries (or how I had to deplete my life savings when my asthmatic wife was taken to the ICU when a chest cold turned into pneumonia). I'm just pointing out that even from the standpoint of the cold numbers on a spreadsheet, government run healthcare is much more preferable.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
