You want free, but it never will be

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | 31 july 09 | Patrick McIlheran

[rellimpank]

Jane Cooper makes money by untangling health-insurance hassles for other companies' employees. If 100 million of us get dumped onto some "public option," as predicted, Cooper does not expect to be out of business. Quite the contrary.

"The amount of frustration in dealing with public entities is going to be significant," said Cooper. That's neither threat nor prediction, just understatement based on what anyone could now see.

So Cooper will be in demand. She runs Patient Care, a Milwaukee company that contracts with about 230 employers nationwide to be the one-call-fix-it line for health insurance. For a small monthly fee, her company helps people sort through options, costs and bureaucracy.

These vexations are part of what make people say health-care finance must be changed, but if they believe that government intervention will alleviate hassles, they're mistaken.

[Carley]

Up next.

Clunkers for health care.

[Doogle]

tea party t-shirt:

If it's too good to be true
you should know better

[mek1959]

ping

[gusopol3]

Good article; this is the reality which creates the shadows where the Democrats like to lurk. For instance, Wal-Mart and many other pharmacies have a $4 generic pay plan that all but eliminates the need for prescrition coverage from any health plan and , just as virtually all the drugs that “seniors were having to choose between their prescriptions and eating” during the last universal push under Clinton are now on that list, many other “blockbusters” soon will be. But the Democrats will insist on drug coverage for any qualified plan. Medicare and other insurance reimbursement rates have already held physicians’ fees far below the rate of general inflation for at least two decades, but the slimer tries to make doctor’s fees the culprit in medical inflation, rather than new technology that advances evryone’s well-being.You wouldn’t have to be especially cynical to note that a lot of that imaging equipment undoubtedly is made by GE ( somebody will probably show me I’m wrong)