BobF
The problem with subsidies is that they are inflationary.  Good or bad, healthcare providers work by the same principles as any other business.  When you make tons of new money available to pay for their products & services, there is nothings to hold down costs.
 
Insurance costs aren't higher because insurance companies are building greater margins.  Insurance costs are higher because the insurance dollars collected have to pay more to providers that are charging more.
 
In many cases, insurance companies are simply paid by self-insurers to administer/manage the process less expensively and with greater levels compliance than hiring specialized staff.
 
Just like anything else the government makes money easy for, price inflation follows.  Education anyone?
 
The ACA guaranteed payment on behalf of millions of new "customers" with zero on the cost control side.
 
There are options, but handing an industry a blank check to be paid by taxpayers and government borrowing isn't the answer.

 
This is a common mispconception about healthcare.  It's not fungible and therefore isn't inflationary.  Keeping oneself healthy is something that happens only when we're sick.  Each person will have a different relationship to that, therefore it's not fungible and doesn't behave like a normal market.  It's the competition between insurance companies that we're after at this point, not necessarily competition between doctors.  That market behaves like any other profession.

hmm...
 
Based on some of the comments in this thread it almost sounds like the United States is ready for a proper universal healthcare system... like the ones just about every other civilized first world country offers it's citizens.
 
...
 
*crickets*

I hope so.  But that's poly tickal.  It should be a moral argument by this point, but it's simply not.  Corporations are amoral by definition.  (They aren't PEOPLE, cough).  Also, you have to realize that some of those *civilized countries* can afford a national healthcare system because the US foot the bill for their security.  With Putin sabre rattling I'm sure they're happier to have a defense than a national healthcare system.  But..that's the oldest economical question on the planet:  guns or butter?

eph221
Also, you have to realize that some of those *civilized countries* can afford a national healthcare system because the US foot the bill for their security.

Did you actually just post that? There is sooooo much wrong with that statement but I'm not going to go full politiderp.
 

:D

Beepster
hmm...
 
Based on some of the comments in this thread it almost sounds like the United States is ready for a proper universal healthcare system... like the ones just about every other civilized first world country offers it's citizens.
 
...
 
*crickets*

A universal healthcare system is where Obama care is intended to become. It is designed to fail in order  for the government to convince us they can do a better job controlling our heath care. I don't think so. I know others who live in Canada and other places that have government run healthcare can shed a real light on the subject if they can be honest about it. Keeping the government establishment out of our lives should continue to be the goal. I think we are fully capable of taking care of our selves.

I am Canadian and although not perfect our healthcare system is one of our most cherished institutions.
 
Ever since I was a kid I have hoped and wished that someday Americans could have free access to at least basic healthcare.
 
Surviving an illness vs. going completely bankrupt is an inhuman prospect.
 
Not only that... universal health care, when implemented correctly, saves a ridiculous amounts of money by removing the useless middle men AND is crucial to a healthy economy. People who can get preventive medicine BEFORE an illness becomes dire are more productive (not to mention the savings on emergency care) AND have, overall, more disposable income to put back into the most fluid parts of the economy (eg: food, clothes, shelter, consumer goods as opposed to it funnelling directly to the top by way of huge insurance companies and possible sucked right out of the country to foreign investors bank accounts).
 
Now look what you guys done did.
 
You made me go politiderp.
 
I'm out.
 
Peace.

Beepster
I am Canadian and although not perfect our healthcare system is one of our most cherished institutions.
 
Ever since I was a kid I have hoped and wished that someday Americans could have free access to at least basic healthcare.
 
Surviving an illness vs. going completely bankrupt is an inhuman prospect.
 
Not only that... universal health care, when implemented correctly, saves a ridiculous amounts of money by removing the useless middle men AND is crucial to a healthy economy. People who can get preventive medicine BEFORE an illness becomes dire are more productive (not to mention the savings on emergency care) AND have, overall, more disposable income to put back into the most fluid parts of the economy (eg: food, clothes, shelter, consumer goods as opposed to it funnelling directly to the top by way of huge insurance companies and possible sucked right out of the country to foreign investors bank accounts).
 
Now look what you guys done did.
 
You made me go politiderp.
 
I'm out.
 
Peace.

 
Sorry bro.

Mosvalve
Keeping the government establishment out of our lives should continue to be the goal. I think we are fully capable of taking care of our selves.

The problem with the government not being involved is that health care is not something where free market capitalism applies the way it does elsewhere. 
 
The reason is that if you have something like appendicitis you can't really just choose not to get treatment if it's too expensive. And choosing the cheaper treatment for a medical condition is not a good option when one's life might depend on that treatment. And you likely don't want insurance companies, whose primary motivation is their own profit margin, making those kinds of decisions for you either. 
 
Market forces are just severely limited when it comes to health care, and without regulation that leaves us in a bad situation. Free market economics only work in a market that's actually free.

drewfx1

Mosvalve
Keeping the government establishment out of our lives should continue to be the goal. I think we are fully capable of taking care of our selves.

The problem with the government not being involved is that health care is not something where free market capitalism applies the way it does elsewhere. 
 
The reason is that if you have something like appendicitis you can't really just choose not to get treatment if it's too expensive. And choosing the cheaper treatment for a medical condition is not a good option when one's life might depend on that treatment. And you likely don't want insurance companies, whose primary motivation is their own profit margin, making those kinds of decisions for you either. 
 
Market forces are just severely limited when it comes to health care, and without regulation that leaves us in a bad situation. Free market economics only work in a market that's actually free.

Oh bro, we think alike! I wish I had thought of that! DOH!