Health Care

[Caer Rialis]

How do we address these things? By excluding from coverage (=access to) many of the treatments and basic medications for these conditions.

That's precisely what I mean. If we disagree, JD, its over semantics.

Now, I only saw part of the "report" but on 20/20 there was a piece explaining how the only medical procedure that went down in cost was Lasik surgery because insurance doesn't cover it and therefore people shopped for the best price.

The argument was that people don't care if they aren't paying for it. Interesting thought ...

Was that a John Stoessel report? I'm always careful with his reports, not because he is a free enterprise libertarian, but more because he has been known to doctor up his reports in less than ethical ways. Amazing he still has a job while Dan Rather was sent packing.

You could argue that insurance has been a bane for us all. That if there were no medical insurance, there would be lower prices for health care over all. You also would more than likely find people who didn't receive adequate care because they couldn't afford it, see more epidemics ravage the country, and watch more people declare bankrupcy because, once some catastrophic illness or cancer sets in, they simply can't afford even a "lower cost due to market principles".

You have to remember, health care in the U.S. has been provided by employers since the 1950s. Because the U.S. infrastructure wasn't completely demolished byt eh Second World War, the route of having the government take a greater role in health care and/or health insurance never really took hold. Instead, in order to keep wage increases down employers offered their employees health care, which, as prices were low and employers, like many today, were self-insured, actually made profits for the employer. however, once the grubby little hands of the insurance industry really gained strength in the 1980s, that all shifted.

Thing is we always pay for it or at least our insurance dose if we don't but we do pay for that insurance.

Those of us who can, or who can afford it. Those who can't get told by <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPrYviZtVrs'>representatives</a> from Kansas to become adults and pay for it ourselves.