Text 10815, 70 rader
Skriven 2009-04-01 05:30:00 av Bob Klahn (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av Bob Ackley
Ärende: Why so quiet?
=====================
 BA> Government regulators and many of the leftish political
 BA> persuasion want to change the whole concept of insurance
 BA> from risk management to what is basically welfare.

 It is not risk management, but risk sharing. Risk management has
 developed out of the desire to cut the cost, but the basis of
 insurance is still risk sharing. We all pay a bit to protect
 against expenses that few could afford on their own.

 BA> In the specific case of the caterwauling about universal
 BA> health care; the bottom line is that the people
 BA> (supposedly) want the care provided but they don't want to
 BA> have to pay for it.

 They pay for it, and they know it. But they also get medical
 care, which makes it worthwhile.

 BA> If the universal health care the
 BA> politicos want is ever enacted, in order for it to be
 BA> actuarially sound the premiums for it will have to be
 BA> astronomical and most insurors if not all of them will

 Yet the US has the most expensive health care system of the
 industrialized world, with the poorest coverage. I do believe
 the US is the only industrialized nation where bankruptcy is a
 common result of medical expenses.

 And with all that, the US has a third world health care system
 in many ways. Infant mortality is way up there, and even worse
 if you look at poor Americans alone.

 BA> abandon that market.  Bet on it.  In point of fact *many*
 BA> insurors have already abandoned the health insurance market.

 This is under our current private payment system.

 BA> IMO if the government wants to provide health care for
 BA> everybody, the government
 BA> should build, staff and equip the facilities to do so and
 BA> not *force* private entities to do it for them (at a loss).

 No industrialized country forces private medical care to provide
 care at a loss. Yet several do have a publically financed
 private care system.

 BA>  There have for decades been tax-supported
 BA> public hospitals in this country, usually they're owned and
 BA> run by a 'hospital authority'
 BA> that has the power to levy property taxes in its service
 BA> area.

 Quite a few have been privatized, and it's closer to a century
 or more, not just decades.

 BA> Oakland, CA, is another. Other taxpayer-supported hospitals
 BA> are affiliated with state college and university
 BA> medical schools, the University of Nebraska Medical Center
 BA> in Omaha is one of

 Those are still pretty common. The U of Toledo medical college
 as an example.



BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
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