Topic: Health Care
What Physicians Know The greatest burden for physicians is dealing with private health insurance companies, which is why so many of them want Medicare to be made available to everyone.by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Sunday, November 1, 2009
I had a long conversation with my favorite physician, who has operated on me twice successfully. He is an incredibly kind person without an ounce of greed or pretense. Like other physicians I have spoken to, he spoke eloquently about the terrible times he consistently has with private health insurance companies.
While he praises Medicare for its simplicity and certainty, he has absolutely nothing positive to say about private insurers. They take up huge amounts of time of him and his staff, trying in every possible way to deny services to their customers (his patients) and also to pay as little as possible to him. His endless struggles with the insurance companies make his life miserable. Meanwhile all he cares about is giving his patients the very best care and not making them suffer because of their insurance carriers.
Like so many of us he sees the need for major reforms of our health care system, but remains pessimistic about what Congress and President Obama will eventually deliver. He is incredulous at how executives of private insurers make vast amounts of money while making physicians and their patients suffer endless annoyances and negative impacts on health care. And they get away with making people pay more and more money for worse and worse insurance.
He also has many stories about patients that do not take medications for long term chronic conditions because they cannot afford prescriptions. He gives out as many samples that he can get, is angry that people in other nations pay much less for brand name drugs, and feels terrible for his patients because the US health care system has let them down.
What would be the ideal solution to the current health care mess? My doctor believes that opening up Medicare to everyone would be wonderful, and the system could be opened up immediately. I totally agree. There is no sound reason for Congress to protect the private health insurance industry. But of course they always have and always will because it is the source of huge amounts of money for political campaigns.
While no one should be forced into Medicare, just making it available to all who want it would be fair. If private colleges compete with public ones, and private for profit hospitals compete with nonprofit ones, why shouldn't health insurance companies be put in a similar position?
Corruption blocks true and necessary health care reform. Remember that the next time you vote.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Joel S. Hirschhorn only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Joel S. Hirschhorn is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
You say, "While no one should be forced into Medicare, just making it available to all who want it would be fair". The problem there is everyone would be forced to pay for Medicare for all. Why would anyone not want to be in the program if they have to pay for it anyhow ?
This is very similar to the collectivists saying, "if you don't like socialism, why don't you give up your social security and Medicare". This after they have paid into those programs most of their lives.
If there is an eventual "public option" you can be certain you will pay into that program as the losses start mounting. There will be no way out. Even if they offer the "states can opt out" nonsense, those opt out states will pay.
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