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Like I have said before, hospitals have become the defacto social safety net for society. As a result, they have to hire a huge amount of social workers and care managers. As a result, this increases costs.

A fractured arm is not acute leukemia. They do not compare.

I thought the catastrophic health plans were good, and it was horrible that Zerocare took them away. I did, however, see patients take advantage of those plans with private practice physicians. A patient would go to the ER with a fractured arm. They would get referred to an orthopedist who was on call ( a requirement to have hospital privileges). The orthopedist was then required to treat the patient, even if the patient did not have money on hand. If they did not treat that patient, (because they could not pay their deductible), the physician could lose their license due to patient abandonment.

More people used this tactic then those who were honest and actually paid their bill.

My wife’s first husband died of leukemia. Once it got to a certain level they had actually signed papers telling the hospital not to revive or otherwise keep him alive. The hospital did anyway and it added approximately $100,000 to the bill.

As you can see, personal experiences are shaping my attitude about this.
We have my daughter’s arm, the friend cured of cancer and my wife’s first husband. And, of course, lots of other stuff.

I think health care should be like car insurance, except not required. It should not be connected to your employer, you should not be required to get it, and there should be plans designed for your particular needs. Why should a man and woman in their 70’s be covered for pregnancy?

As long as obamacare exists, we should bleed the system dry until it collapses of its own weight. Then we can go back to formula. Kinda like Microsoft Windows 7 removed all the crap that slowed down Vista.