Comments on: Can Private Health Insurance Work?

By: Raymond

Raymond — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:21:44 +0000

If there are limited choices in the market, the government is probably involved.

By: David Barr

David Barr — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:43:16 +0000

Raymond, I completely agree that extending the coverage that congress gets to the general population would be the ideal solution. You do realize that you are advocating a single payer system?

Dan, you challenge me to find an example of the free market failing in health care. I challenge you to find an affordable health insurance plan for a 50 year earning $30,000 a year.

There is a reason that no modern developed country relies on a pure market system to provide health care. There is simply no way that private charity could provide for the millions of Americans who have conditions which require expensive treatment.

Furthermore, without government programs like Medicare, VA and Medicaid there would not be a large enough customer pool to justify developing expensive treatments for diseases like cancer and HIV as few people could afford those treatments.

Competitive insurance markets work can work for young and healthy people, but there is no way that a private company will insure someone with diabetes that for anything less than the cost of treating diabetes. If your proposed system does not address this problem it will certainly leave people to die from treatable conditions.

My challenge to you is to find an example of another rich country that gets worse value for their money than US.

By: Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:14:09 +0000

In order to have a coherent discussion, you must first show where free markets in health care in America have failed. That is not possible because there have been no free markets in America for decades. There is not a single area in the health care industry that has not been warped beyond recognition by massive government intervention.

As far as people being left to die, have you not heard of the human invention called charity? Most hospitals began as charitable religious organizations 100+years ago, long before government decided tmo solve everyone’s problems. The current manpulations have killed charitable organizations in health care and made people dependent on big brother, just as the father of progressiveism, Otto Von Bismark, planned. He was not interested in charity, but only making citizens dependent.

You are utilizing the most basic of economic fallacies, the idea that it is free if govenment provides it. Your entire train of thought is incoherent because you start from propositions that are grossly false.

By: raymond

raymond — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:53:23 +0000

Where should the government stand regarding personal suffering since no one deserves to starve or die?

Regarding health plans,
Congress members know that having more consumer choices is the way to go, at least for themselves.

They have some 13 health plans they can choose from. If they are unhappy with the one they currently own, they can purchase another for the next year.

If the free market is good enough for them, it’s good enough for every American. Sell that planned crap to someone else.