[ejroth]

I have never said anything about abolishing private insurance. One of the solutions would be for everyone to have and pay for their own health insurance. The availability of private insurance is not the problem but instead employer and government provided insurance which fosters higher healthcare costs.

I would love to see Medicare/caid phased out but I know that this is not going to happen because the American people are addicted to government.

I have no problem increasing the supply of doctors if it is done by the free market. I’m simply stating that under our current payer system it will not result in lower costs. If we go back to a fee for service system where the doctor can set his own prices than increasing supply would lower cost. You are right that there are many doctors who want to see supply limited because it would protect their pocketbook (so they think). I’m not one of them. I want a free and open market in which to compete.

I agree with you 100% that socialism is not the answer – it will only make things worse.

[Brilliant]

I think we’re pretty close in our views. I think the major difference is that I see the current health insurance system as a given.

I really don’t think that having everyone pay for his own health insurance would solve the problem. First of all, individual health insurance is very expensive and difficult to get because like all other kinds of insurance, the underwriters can look at your health history and your claims record. If you make a claim on it, they terminate you. If not, then why have it?

The reason employer based health plans work is that they are insuring a group which is presumably predictable to some degree as to claims. The reason why government plans make a little more sense from an insurance standpoint is that they take the ultimate group—everyone.

If we’re going to have health insurance, then it will most likely be employer or government based. I think that it would be good to go back to a direct pay system, but that’s probably the last thing that is going to happen. The closest we might come is if our present system opts for a very high deductible that effectively makes our health insurance into a catastrophic health care system.

Personally, I don’t see why we should not do that, but it doesn’t look like it’s in the cards, at least at this point.