Re: Who will be the US "Big 3" in 2016?

Mike. I gotta tell you, this is one of the few times I agree with you. Anything run by the government is always more expensive -- and usually poorly run too.

Reply to
Lee Florack
Loading thread data ...

What you say should make a lot of sense, but in my mind, NOTHING could be worse than having the government run anything so important. Everything I've ever seen the government try to take over is always poorly run and more costly. Can you think of anything they've run better and more cheaply? Let's even make that easier. Can you think of anything they've run well?

Personally, I want the government in my life much less than it already is. Not more.

Reply to
Lee Florack

But for the Canadians I've spoken to, they think the Canadian Healthcare system is horrible. One of the main reasons is that it's hard to obtain.

Reply to
Lee Florack

It's a virtual monopoly, and consumers (1) are discouraged from shopping around for the best prices; (2) usually have no awareness of what their insurer is paying for medical care and how this differs from what someone with other or no insurance would pay.

Unlike auto repair shops, when was the last time anyone saw doctors' offices advertising the cost of a routine 10k mile body checkup in the local newspaper? Or what's the cheapest ER within twenty miles for getting a laceration sewed up? Given the wait times in many ERs for such an injury, may as well make the driving radius 100 miles. (Wait times can routinely be long in some ERs, because some are dedicated to certain types of injury, and these injuries fill up the ER.)

Consumers, overcome with fear uncertainty and doubt, now view health insurance as not something for peace of mind but something from which they should get their money's worth every year. Which of course just raises health insurance prices more.

It seems increasingly more "funny money" is getting around, too. E.g. in the past year for two minor procedures, once the billing source heard I was not affiliated with any insurer but was paying directly, they slashed my bills. So now the uninsured can count on the insured to pay the cost of "negotiating" lower fees? I do not want to rely on this (even though in theory I received a smaller bill these last times). It's not free market action. Consumers have no idea of the actual costs of services.

It does resemble a pyramid scheme: Insurance Company X says that, by purchasing their plan, you'll get a 20% discount from the "normal" price that doctor's office Y charges. Y does not want to give money away, so s/he raises the prices on services. X responds by raising the prices for the consumer. The consumer Z is just happy s/he's getting 20% off whatever price.

Government intervenes to prevent monopolistic practices all the time. While health care providers and insurers may not be breaking the law on trusts (= monopolies), they are violating the principles on which this law is based.

This is a trick question, since rarely have direct comparisons been possible.

We could talk about the construction of interstate highways, USPS vs. UPS (they seem pretty competitive), disaster relief (despite Katrina, it would be only conjecture to say a private firm could handle such a situation better), Medicare for the 65 and older crowd vs. private insurance today, and not get anywhere meaningful.

Reply to
Elle

The USPS makes a profit and only charges 39 cents to deliver a letter to Buttfuck Idaho.

Well, the US Army used to pay a soldier $15,000 plus rations to drive a truck in a war zone. Now they give Haliburton a cost-plus contract to hire civilians at $100,000 to drive a truck which, if blown up or abandoned, represents a profit for the Company.

I would like to have health insurance that I can't lose to the whims of fate.

Reply to
Gordon McGrew

The US the economy was doing pretty sure was do pretty well after the Kennedy cut the marginal tax rate to 50%, the income to the federal treasury tripled. Just as the income to the federal treasury doubled after President Reagan cut the marginal tax rate to 35%. There has been another huge increase in income to the federal treasury after President Bush tax rat cuts. Currently the federal treasures income is the highest in the history of the world.

You must believe it to be fair for the government to pass a law to tax all of the money YOU earned all year, at three times the rate you are currently paying, then tax whatever money you have left over at the end of the year at a rate of 55%? LOL

mike hunt

Reply to
Mike Hunter

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.