Posted on 03/02/2016 4:13:13 AM PST by IBD editorial writer
In November of last year I received a letter from the large medical practice that my family uses. It said that if you have BC/BS HMO or Bc/BS medicare advantage all your appointments are cancelled after January 1. This is a very large practice with all kinds of specialists and family practice doctors.
The hospital that sent the bill couldn’t tell me what the code was...
I don’t disagree, if there is medical insurance.
I don’t think there should be medical insurance at all. Before the advent of medical insurance the American people got better medical care. Now we have patients going bankrupt due to medical costs and hospitals going out of business.
The only ones getting rich are the insurance companies and the drug companies. The insurance companies are no different than the mob taking protection money.
Insurance is simply a product, like any other product. It fills a need, or a desire.
Insurance was not created for, nor does it serve a need, any more than paying protection to the mob serves a need. The only need it fills is the lining of the pockets of the higher-ups in the insurance industry.
Before medical insurance, patients got better care and they did not go bankrupt due to medical costs. Hospitals thrived. Doctors thrived.
Since medical insurance, patients get far worse care and they are rushed out of hospitals. Now, approximately half of Americans who go bankrupt do so as a result of medical bills.
Hospitals are going out of business at an alarming rate. That means less access to critical care. It has also caused the new industry of urgent care clinics, that are charging far more than ever before.
So, who’s needs and desires are being satisfied by the new business model?
Not mine or yours.
Insurance is just protection against possibility of loss. If you don’t care about suffering a financial loss due to hazard or illness, then don’t buy insurance. Pretty simple.
I notice you didn’t address any of my points.
Yes, under the current corrupt system, the choice is mine.
Never mind the bigger picture. Keep your blinders firmly in place and whistle your way down the path they have laid out for you.
By the way, you better hope you don’t ever get a real bad diagnosis and your insurance refuses to cover you.
No big deal, right?
You just contradicted yourself. You are against insurance on the one hand, and then on the other you say I better hope my insurance covers a bad diagnosis.
I never contradicted myself. Let’s try again.
I said there should be no such thing as medical insurance.
Since it does exist, we have little choice but to get it, or doom ourselves to bankruptcy.
This is the second time you have ignored my points on why medical insurance is no different than mob protection money.
Only you know why you continue to avoid the point.
I’m not avoiding your “point,” at all. Mainly because your point is a non-sequitur.
You liken medical insurance to having to pay mob protection money. There just is no similarity.
You purchase medical insurance so you can cover medical costs and expenses that you might incur in the event of a medical illness or injury. You pay a certain sum, a premium, which is small compared to the overall cost of medical care you need in the event of illness or injury. That premium protects your financial assets if you have any, and also allows you to receive medical care that can cure you or save your life. You may or may not ever need that medical care, but you have coverage just in case you do.
Mob protection money is extortion. You either pay for “protection” or those from whom you need protection — i.e., the extortionist mobsters — will cause you harm.
Rural hospitals. These are hospitals that never had the ability to compete in the marketplace.
And still no answer.
Are American citizens better off since the advent of medical insurance or not?
Oh, yeah. Definitely. Medical insurance has made it possible for a hell of a lot of lives to be saved, and a hell of a lot of lives to be made more livable.
I am against the government mandating that every American have medical insurance, because I don’t think it’s any damn business of the government to order such a thing.
If you want medical insurance, then buy it. If you don’t want it, then don’t buy it.
Medical insurance is a product that a hell of a lot of Americans want. If you don’t want it, fine.
Why don’t you respond to my comment about the idiocy of your posit that buying medical insurance is the same as having to pay protection money to the mob? I’ll tell you why: Neither the insurance industry nor the medical profession will burn down your house and break your legs if you don’t buy medical insurance; however, the mob will burn down your business and break your legs if you don’t buy their protection “offer.”
Then why is it that in today’s America, so many go broke from medical bills, when that wasn’t the case before medical insurance?
Don’t you understand that the reason for skyrocketing medical expenses is a direct result of insurance and the drug companies?
Of course under today’s circumstances one would be a fool not to buy insurance, but that’s not the point.
So, why do you think hospitals are shuttering their doors?
Why do you think insurance premiums keep going up? Obviously Obamacare has made it worse, but the bigger problem was already the introduction of HMO.
Face it. The American people are being soaked and insurance and Pharmaceutical companies are doing the soaking.
I can tell you why hospitals are closing in California: Millions of illegals use the ER as their primary care physician, and they never pay their bills. My sister is an RN in California, and the stories she tells about illegals and California hospitals would likely stun you.
As for medical care before medical insurance, most people never went to hospitals, and they treated themselves or had a veterinarian or dentist treat them. Fact.
I don’t know what part of the country you’re from, but no one I have known has ever sought medical attention from a veterinarian.
Were these people who went to veterinarians smarter than an average gopher?
Think about it. It wasn’t all that long ago that only a minority of the people lived in cities; most lived in rural locales on farms, ranches, and homesteads.
There were no hospitals at all, and if there was a medical doctor anywhere around he was harried, overworked, or on a call elsewhere, and was most likely paid in produce or goods or labor (since money was usually limited, scarce, or non-existent).
People tended to treat themselves, or they went to someone who had some kind of medical training or background. Hence, dentists and veterinarians were often “called to duty” to treat human ailments and injuries. In fact, a lot of baby deliveries were performed by veterinarians; and, of course, midwives. In the army, battle casualties were treated by doctors, veterinarians, dentists, and anyone who happened to be near by.
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