South Shore Progressive posted a piece from Dr. Robert Stone of Bloomington, IN who suggested that for-profit insurance companies are the 800 pound gorilla in reforming our dying health care system.
Poor regulation has contributed to the overall financial crisis, no doubt. In the case of the health insurance industry’s predicament, at least two other forces are undermining its viability: the steadily declining numbers of people in employer-sponsored health plans and the skyrocketing costs of individual health insurance plans.
Private health insurance, with its rising premiums, co-pays, deductibles, exclusions, and so on, is becoming increasingly unaffordable for individuals, families and businesses. The private model of financing care is no longer sustainable; it is dying.
We simply can no longer afford to have these for-profit companies dominate our health care system. They ARE the problem, and retaining their inefficient, greedy business practices should not be part of the solution.
Instead, we should turn to the “other 800-pound gorilla†in the room – the elegantly simple solution staring us in the face: Medicare for all. Medicare is the universal government financed (“single payerâ€) health care system we have already for everyone age 65 and older. We have over 40 years’ experience with it. Simply replace for-profit insurance with Medicare for everyone.
Dr. Stone is a leader of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan.
I always kind of chuckle when I hear politicians of a certain stripe lament & wring their hands that a government-run health care system would, oh my goodness, create so much bureaucratic red tape! As if there’s NOT red tape with private insurers? And not only that, there’s about 3000 different kinds of red tape depending upon which particular insurance company you happen to be dealing with.
Glenn, keep in mind the 3000 different kinds of red tape are REQUIRED by government mandate, not insurance company preference.
All those CYA forms are by law, like hippa, etc. Uncle Sam created the red tape.
No, tim, that’s not what I meant at all. I’m talking about different insurance plans covering different things with different co-pays, different pre-certification processes for different kinds of proceudres or treatments that vary from one plan to the next.
Didn’t we just pay millions to keep AIG in business? Now we suggest making ALL of the health insurance companies go away?
I agree, it should be done. However, don’t discount how many jobs will be erased when you finally kill that ugly system of red tape. I don’t see too many lawmakers signing up for shutting down jobs in this climate.