No, according to Panda Bear:
The Big Lie, the scare tactic used by the usual suspects in their craven lust for political power is that people need comprehensive health insurance. They most certainly do not. Most people most of the time need so little medical care that most of the money spent either by them, their employer, or the government is wasted as far as it benefits them. Consequently, in a country where almost everyone can borrow money for automobiles, personal watercraft, and all manners of luxury items, there is no reason why most of us should not be expected to pay for most of our medical care most of the time (even if we have to borrow a little). No reason, that is, except that we have been conditioned to expect it for free.
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{ 19 comments }
Panda Bear is basically right but leaves out one factor sustaining the status quo: predatory pricing by hospitals and labs towards those without a insurance plan negotiating a rate for them. The is less true of physicians but not entirely untrue.
Everytime we charge a higher rate to the guy without coverage or without coverage from the “Big Boy Monopoly Bend Over and Take It Cause I’ve Got Market Share” company, then we are strengthening the insurance industry stanglehold over our once independent profession.
Come on now, Elliott. I’m pretty well edumafriggincated by any standard you care to apply and while I wouldn’t say I’m a genius doctor, I’m at least average which, although it would curdle your bile to admit it, puts me in the top one percent of the country for intelligence.
Why my simple observation that most people mostly only need major medical insurance for most of their lives causes you such pain is puzzling.
As for being incompetent, have I had you as a patient?
Well, to be a total a**hole about it, I’m in the top 1/2 of 1% of intelligence in this country (and probably in the top 0.1%), but I’ve been called stupid more times than I can count. There are many economic issues that you get wrong and/or conflate with regard to the insurance and healthcare market, but the major point of disagreement is that I believe healthcare is a right as outlined by Franklin Roosevelt and the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Most doctors posting on this blog don’t agree. I suspect you don’t either. Even if we get past that issue, there’s the question of who provides the catastrophic insurance and whether it’s existence increases the chance that people won’t get the routine maintenance they need so there’s the question of how you handle that. Finally, there’s the fact that healthcare is not a competitive market with good information for the consumer so that the market cannot function properly. (One manifestation of that is the issue of the first commentor made.)
I’ll also mention that universal healthcare schemes in other countries cost less and have the same or better outcomes so the pareto optimal solution is certainly not our system.
So why call me an idiot? We obviously have a fundamental disagreement on whether medical care is a right, that’s all, and I never said my blog was a detailed thesis in which I expound on my foolproof plan for solving everybody’s problems.
NOt only with this bore my readers but I don’t have times.
The same can be said about all insurance. It is a complete waste of money, until the day comes when you really need it.
Kevin, why delete my comment? PandaBearMD admits that he didn’t go into details and that he isn’t planning on it, but in this kind of discussion, the devil is in the details. That’s incompetence. Also, he uses this willfully ignorant post to argue for his political agenda. That’s misleading spin. Sorry that I hold PandaBearMD and you in disdain, but that disdain is based on your own words rather than any personal animosity. I’ve never met you or PandaBearMD. In fact, I’m quite sure that I would find you both charming and companionable in person. I, on the other, have the same grating tone that I use online. The difference is I have the facts on my side while you have to distort reality to argue your agenda.
P.S. Perusing PandaBearMD’s blog, I find much to recommend it. This particular post seems more of an anomaly, but he’s only a resident so probably is still being indoctrinated in those qualities of the physician fantasy I find so objectionable. He’s gained another reader which can’t be all bad.
I never said insurance was a waste. But if you pay 12,000 bucks a year and only use 1000 bucks a year of medical services, why not just get a high deductible policy and take the risk of one year having to pay a few more thousand out of pocket before the policy kicks in?
Insurance is meant to manage risk. Paying for routine health care is not a risk that needs to be managed except by people who are insane.
Elliot, I have no political agenda but I am flattered that you think I am important enough to swing public opinion if I did.
And you don’t have to be so condescending. I may have only been a doctor for 2 years but I’m 44, a pillar of the community (so to speak), a former engineer, a former Marine, and the kind of citizen on whose back and brain the whole creaky edifice is supported. I am also a self-made man so I know a little something about the ease with which people can be “un-made.”
As for indoctrination, most of it is contrary to my opinions. Duke in particular, where I did my intern year, was a hotbed of smarmy nanny-staters.
No political agenda? That’s utter BS. You’re fairly transparent.
Tell me what I’m wrong about:
1. You initially supported the war with Iraq.
2. You think personal injury lawyers are scum.
3. You’ve stated explicitly that you don’t believe in universal healthcare.
4. You think you pay too much in taxes.
Not as confident in the next three, but I’m willing to bet that you identify as a Protestant, that you’re not convinced that we need to take action on global warming, and that you have never voted for a Democrat for President.
I’m Greek Orthodox, as far from protestant as you can get, even further than some muslims.
And I support this war and the concept of war in general. I have the usual criticisms of tactics and strategy but since I have zero influence in the matter I don’t bother arguing them.
But how is this an agenda? We don’t usually discuss politics on my blog at all and I usually delete overt political comments.
Your problem is that you re close-minded and panic easily when confronted with opinions that are not the usual liberal orthodoxy.
Am I to assume that I got most of the rest correctly (remember I put the religion one in the not so sure category although I probably should have said non-Catholic Christian)? You’re really reaching here.
Let’s recap. I said that you basically lied about how insurance works to support your political point that universal healthcare is evil. You protested that you had no political agenda. I called BS and said your point was obviously political and listed some other political POV’s I expected you had. Now you’re calling me close-minded? Little projection there, no?
Elliott,
Your comment was deleted because you called him an idiot. Again, your contrarian views are welcome. Personal attacks are no longer tolerated.
Kevin
Come on Kevin F***ing-A-Skippy is civil and idiot isn’t? PandaBear – took the time to read your bio before posting again. Anyway, the funny thing is I’m your doppleganger. Same age, same number of kids – same age even, career changer from engineer to medical profession. OTOH, I’m a liberal and damn proud of it.I have no use for you and you have no use for me. Ta.
Anyone read this and still wonder why we can’t rationally debate and solve problems in this repuplic. I once thought the internet would help that, but it has only degraded it. At least in bars, town halls, and college debates, the prospect of a knuckle sandwich has a salutory effect on self-restaint.
Sorry Panda – no foul language.
Kevin
My apologies.
I wrote a blog answering this from an economic point of view. Please see: my blog. The bottom line of my argument against this is that it serves to fix things in the short term while leaving long term problems unanswered.
I believe the market failures of health care are not due to a failed government system but to an epidemic of unhealthy lifestyles that cannot be supported economically. Preventable illness comprises 80% of the burden of illness and 90% of all healthcare costs. Preventable illnesses account for eight of the nine leading categories of death. No medicine, surgery or treatment can reverse the damage caused by a lifetime of smoking, poor eating and lack of exercise. By simply increasing treatment that buys time, ignores the inevitable need to align patient’s economic incentives toward healthy living. This is the innovation needed in the economic system of health care, not just more health care.
I agree with Damon whole heartedly. If the society that we live in would learn to live healthy lives, then the medical field would not be so overwhelmed with patients. People are living longer but those are people that never smoked or did drugs or drank. They lived clean healthy lives. The problems faced by our nation is due to people having no reguard to their own health but expect something free to get them better.There is NO FREE HEALTH CARE. Medicare and medicaide is paid by all of us tax payers.
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