So in a different thread there is talk about health care and health insurance. Honestly, health insurance just doesn't make sense to me. Insurance is for when shit goes really wrong not for everyday maintenance and expenses. It's similar to if you put gas, tires and oil changes on your auto insurance. How much would auto insurance be if you billed everything you did to your car on it? Not just the cost of those things but the expanded infrastructure needed just to handle the paperwork. It's like if you billed your homeowners insurance for paint and home repairs. You go into Home Depot, stop by the billing department, fill out some forms, give your insurance provider and then wait for preauthorization for new carpet. Using insurance to administer something everyone needs all the time seems like a huge waste of money and resources. I'm not sure what the answer is, socialized medicine has become a four letter word but also I'm not sure if the other countries are getting it right. IMO, we need to first decide a direction for health care in this country. As a nation the goal of health care should be to keep people healthy, happy and functioning at a high level for longer. To extend life expectancy. But as life expectancy increases then the retirement age should be raised.
Agree on all levels. Since you mentioned auto insurance look at what it is doing to the cost of repairs. We had a fender bender a few years ago, looked like it could just be pounded out, probably could have lived with the damage, my deductible was $500 which is what I figured the whole thing would cost and probably my high end price point on just living with it. Total repair bill was $2,200. Back to health insurance, its a racket. Try even discussing more than one issue with your doctor on a visit, most of the time they wont do it because they can get paid for two visits. They also over book clients and charge for chart review and update time which they dont use. My girl used to do health insurance billing and she said it was common to see some doctors billing for more time then they could physically see patients in a day.
Aim high Sly. Good for you, you could have exchanged health insurance for so many things....examples below. 1. Women's sexuality 2.Basic math 3. Life 4. Hygiene 5.Comedy 6. Everything else
Health insurance is bullshit, but it's one of the many rackets we've accepted over the years in this dog and pony show.
The largest hidden cost for USA health care insurance is the insurance doctors, hospitals and drug companies need to buy to protect themselves from massive lawsuits. We have layers of insurance involved in your problem. We have become a nation where anyone can sue anyone else, for any reason. The medical industry is one of the lawyer’s favorite targets. Lawsuits have increased the cost of medical insurance and drugs in our country compared to other countries that do not have as much of a problem with lawsuits. The USA has approx. one lawyer for ever 265 people. The USA has approx. one medical Doctor for ever 416 people.
It's completely unnecessary to have a middle man take our money to pay for healthcare... Thank Nixon and Kaiser for the for profit insurance industry... Another Republican crapfest...
The problem with the notion of "tort reform" is that Texas already has it. They have the largest uninsured population of all the states.
You do not have a clue. Tort reform in Texas actually provided greater access to health care. Plus, tort reform helped make Texas the leading job producer. Tort reform is NOT the reason Texas has so many un-insured people. The real reason Texas has so many un-insured people is the same reason the other states have with the highest rate of uninsured people. Almost six-in-ten un-insured Americans live in states that haven’t set up their own health-insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). Many of the states declined to set up state run programs due to lack of available information about how the exchanges would work. Plus many Governors were wary of the high costs.
Many people in Texas do NOT WANT HEATH INSURANCE, even when it is easier for them to get. And they do not like it when someone tells them they have to do something or have something. There are 5.7 million Texans without health insurance; more than a third of them have an annual household income above $50,000. And more than 1 million have college experience or post-secondary degrees. Due to frivolous lawsuits, many doctors across the country are retiring early. Not anymore in Texas since the tort reform. Plus the numbers of doctors moving to Texas is 3 ½ times greater than the increase in the state’s population. The quality of health care has improved in Texas since the reform. The cost of medical liability insurance for doctors has decreased by as much as 50% since the tort reform. Before the tort reform, many doctors were paying $150,000 - $175,000 or more a year for liability insurance. Lawyers are flooding the internet with misleading tort reform information saying it does not work. The real problem with Tort Reform in Texas is, it is working too well, and the Lawyers across the country are scared of it.
Health insurance should have a $10,000 deductible and no copays. People would shop around for the best deals offered by doctors and the competition between them would drive prices down. I went 10 years without insurance and when I showed up at the doctor's office or clinic, they gave me a cash discount of 50% or more. Doctor visit was $50, lab tests were $150. If I had insurance, it'd have cost me $25 copay and they'd have billed the insurance company $100 and $300. Government is not the answer.
IMO tort reform is pure BS. Let juries decide. They actually get it right more times than not. And yes, some doctors need to be sued right out of patient care. The problem with tort reform is they kill some frivolous lawsuits but at the expense of killing legitimate lawsuits.
I can't speak for the tort reform in Texas, but most tort reform measures are gutted as unconstitutional due to state constitution clauses that say that the right to a jury shall be held inviolate.
You must love those "Did you or a loved one die or suffer serious injury from X product? Call now. Lawyers are standing by to make millions off your minuscule portion of our class action suit" commercials, Sly.
The Texas Tort reforms do not deny a citizen’s right to his or her day in court, as you implied (jokingly I hope). But they do help to mitigate the threat of meritless lawsuits that drive up the cost of medicine without any demonstrable improvement in quality. When nervous doctors are forced to practice defensive medicine it drives up the cost. The Texas Tort bill provided for common sense reforms like putting an end to judge shopping, reforming liability, capping punitive damages, reining in abusive class action lawsuits, and curbing asbestos and silica lawsuit abuse. Before the reforms The Wall Street Journal called Texas the “lawsuit capital of the world” and 60 Minutes produced a segment entitled, “Justice for Sale” in Texas. Lloyds of London imposed an insurance surcharge on any company that did business in Texas because of the high probability and excessive cost of lawsuits.. In 1994, when Texans for Lawsuit Reform was founded, Texas civil courts were a national laughingstock, known to be notoriously unfair and a huge deterrent to businesses that wanted to grow and expand.
