Replies

It has come full circle. Auto unions were the birth of health insurance - it was a means to provide a "benefit" that was not an actual pay raise. Of course, back then, health care was not so expensive. In fact, everyone paid as they went, or if a bill was high, made payments.

The presence of health insurance changed all that. When the "patient" perceived that they were not paying for their health care out of their own pocketbook, costs began their astronomic upward trend. Demand increased dramatically, and when prices zoomed upward, no one complained, no one comparison shopped, and everything just went out of control.

We would be so much better off if the concept of "health insurance" had never surfaced in this world.

Health insurance came about because FDR had the country under wage and price controls, and the union demanded more anyway, so some genius invented the health insurance policy.

Wherever there's mischief, blame a 'Rat!

it's just part of a benefit originally offered to attract workers after the war. Do you feel all insurance and/or all employer benefits packages should be eliminated? You touch on a good point, though, even today I meet too many people who still have that mindset - who think health insurance is an entitlement and are appalled when they have to pay more than a couple of bucks out of their own pocket.

Health insurance was actually caused by wage freezes by the government back in the depression timeframe (I think the timing was then.) Anyway, companies began offering benefits when wages could not be offered.

Thanks to a meddlesome government, people were no longer free to enter into private contracts with other private people.

The solution? Increase minnimum wage and force all employers to offer health coverage, of course.

When the "patient" perceived that they were not paying for their health care out of their own pocketbook, costs began their astronomic upward trend.

Keep in mind that insurance provides a pool of money that the medical industry will soak up and then ask for more. Whenever money's left lying on the table you can guarantee it will be snatched up. This goes for insurance, college tuition, and any government activity.

Not quite. The deep pockets of health Insurance as perceived led to a phenomenal rise in expectations of health care delivery and a dazzling range of new services. Also, imo, a great increase in Health consicousness. In general people had been in denial abut many mundane yet steadily deteriorating health problems because of reluctance to spend to get them fixed.

My wife works as a dental hygienist, for 25 years I've seen the effect. People who never went to dentists started going once they became insured. Still, today after a couple generations of somebody else paying, I would not go to a dental practise that relies on insured patients, and greatly prefer those that do not take insurance or that prefer cash. There is a remarkable difference in the quality of care, in the caring.

Health is a necessity, and good health is a force multiplier in a work-force. In the early years (maybe twenty-thirty years) of health insurance in a region health improves, because public expectations regrading health improve.