3 big health-care myths (debunking the basic "reasons" for obamacare)

Fortune Magazine ^ | Aug. 31, 2009 | Geoff Colvin

[SmartInsight]

How to keep your head when all about you are losing theirs? You can start by understanding three myths about health-care reform we're guaranteed to hear repeatedly. Remember them. Whenever you hear one of them, you'll know that someone is trying to mislead you.

Myth no. 1: Rising health-care costs are a problem in themselves.

Myth no. 2: The fee-for-service system is a major part of the problem.

Myth no. 3: A well-designed government plan can avoid rationing

[SmartInsight]

I would consider this a "must read", it addresses the very "reasons" that are being quoted as the reason for "reforming" healthcare..

Bookmark it, read it, and send it to everyone you know.

[mtrott]

Yes, if I hear “we have to cut the cost of health care” one more time, I think my head will explode. Do people really think we can keep our world class health care, but at third world prices?

Why is nobody, including the GOP, talking about ways of increasing personal wealth in this country, so people would have more disposable income with which to purchase health care insurance?

[IrishCatholic]

bookmark.

[DGHoodini]

What surprises me when I think about it, is that most of “Obamacare” was already “architected” before Obama was eected, and Pelosi and the DemoSocialist leaders started putting their imprimatuer on it. It was forged in the dark furnaces of Daschle and some very shady characters, and had many of the darkest features added to the kiln by him, and even now he works the metal to use it as a future weapon against us all.

[SmartInsight]

It’s not about health care, it’s about CONTROL.

[raygunfan]

and no one will dare bring up the unconstitutionalality.....

[socialismisinsidious]

Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this ping list.

**This is a high volume ping list! (sign of the times)**

[Munz]

i am going to a rather unexpected town hall meeting tomorrow. any talking points that are real bullets will be appreciated.

Quick fact: I live in an area that has a lot of insurance industry.

[Ditter]

I had a fairly polite discussion last night with a friend who sees no problems with government healthcare. She quoted the “50 million have no insurance” figure. I know that I have seen that figure broken down into groups, the young who don't want it, illegal aliens and I could not remember the other groups. But it brought the truly needy down to about 12 million. Does anyone know where this info could be found?

[Paradox]

Do a search here on FR on “uninsured”, you will get several articles.

[Ditter]

Thanks!

[<1/1,000,000th%]

No mention of the trillions of people who can’t get coverage due to pre-existing conditions?

[SmartInsight]

“No mention of the trillions of people who can’t get coverage due to pre-existing conditions?”

I presume you were being sarcastic.

But the pre-existing condition issue has already been addressed by HIPAA — insurance portability. If you had insurance and lost it because you lost or quit your job, etc., you CAN get insurance, they can’t discriminate against you, as long as you can show you DID have prior insurance.

People who don’t buy insurance while they are healthy, prefer to spend it on cable TV or whatever instead, but want to buy insurance AFTER they have been diagnosed with a serious disease are only reaping what they sowed. The insurance industry is based on spreading of the risk, they couldn’t survive for a week, if all people acted this way. This is like not buying fire insurace for your home, but when it caught fire, you call up the insurance company, offer to pay them for a month, if they pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for your fire damage.

[SmartInsight]

Here are some statistics about the uninsured:

http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/05/uninsured-cps/index.htm

Only half are uninsured for 12 months or longer.

They also statistics vs income, age, citizenship, etc.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The trillions number gave me away again. ;)

Thanks for your comment.

My point was that this is also one of the healthcare myths and I would’ve expected it to be mentioned in any discussion of healthcare myths because it’s an obvious myth/lie.

[SmartInsight]

Even the highest estimates for the uninsured are something like 15% of the population.

So why destroy healthcare for the OTHER 85% to cover the 15%?

why don’t they address the iuninsured?

That is just an excuse so the government can take control of EVERYONE’s life and health and decide who is “worthy” of living and who isn’t.

[Ditter]

The friend that I had the discussion with last night about the number of uninsured in the US has gone home to Mexico. They are Dutch and I am not sure why they decided to retire to Mexico. They are liberals and always got ALL their news from the NYT’s so they never had any dissenting opinions to their liberal world view. We had a few unpleasant words over another subject so I doubt if she is my friend any more. Oh well.

[socialismisinsidious]

Rationing, Illegals being covered, insurance and how private enterprise can't compete with government, the enslavement of an entire profession(s)/government take over of small businesses, liability and its burdensome costs to health care, Medicare and its insolvency, Clinton's vaccine for children program (primary reason there are only 5 vaccine producers today and why we've had flu vaccine shortages)

this is lifted from an essay I wrote when Kerry was running:
When medicine is socialized, when the free market is stifled, demand increases because people feel entitled and they believe the misnomer that it is "free". As the demand increases, availability decreases. Here is why: socialized medicine is "free", meaning without immediate personal responsibility, hence no immediate personal cost so people become heedless and put very little forethought into use. With over utilization comes an inability to cover cost. The government can't adequately reimburse the costs of this burgeoning usage so it begins to ration the services by making rules about who can be seen and for what. Rationing also happens as a natural consequence of poor reimbursement. When there is a declining financial incentive to provide care then what you get is less people providing care; who would work for free? The end result is: underpaid doctors who are unable to cover overhead, no incentive for ingenuity or imagination and access that is poor. We don't even need to mention what this does to taxes on a community.

There are first world nations on this Earth where citizens wait 4-6 months to be treated for hip fractures and wait as long as 8 months to see a specialist after being diagnosed with cancer. These nations have a severe physician shortage, long waits for appointments and long drives to facilities. The one thing that these countries have in common is that they have a government run socialized medical system.

How conceited of the Democratic party, and specifically John Kerry, to think that they can make socialized medicine work when the history of the world has taught us just the opposite. Instead of working within the best medical system in the world, instead of requiring personal responsibility and talking tort reform, John Kerry is trying to sneak socialized medicine in under the same guise that Hillary used to take control of vaccine manufacturing: "for the children".



Hope this helps somewhat....Good luck tomorrow!

[Munz]

thank you