This blog printed on 100% recycled electrons.
...Dr. Rube Goldberg, report to the Billing Department...
Recommendation #2 of the Zaniya Project Task Force final report (pp. 6-7) calls for studying options for helping employers offer health coverage to their employees (more studying -- how odd is it that we commission a study to recommend commissioning more studies?).
Even this suggestion demonstrates that the United States has a truly exceptional health care system -- exceptionally wasteful and inefficient. The Zaniya Project thinks it makes perfect sense to have government take money (you think "employer assistance" means anything else?) from taxpayers, hand it to employers, who will then hand it to insurance companies, who will then hand it to hospitals only if they absolutely have to (i.e., if the insurance company lawyers can't find a way out of paying).
The US health care system is indeed exceptional. Only the US out of all industrialized countries sticks its employers in the middle of health care and burdens them with all the extra costs. The industrialized nations our employers have to compete with in the global market use the single-payer system: their governments still take lots of tax dollars, but they skip the middlemen and send the money straight to the hospitals for services rendered.
Single-payer: simple, efficient, good for business... why didn't Zaniya think of that? (Hint: five Zaniya members work in the insurance industry... just like South Dakota's governor.)
The Year in Review, oh, and Merry Christmas!
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I used to be against Winter Wonderland at Falls Park but I have to admit,
the pics on my bike this year have been good, so I guess I am okay with the
city ...
2 days ago
Cutting out the middleman?! The government grabbing up wads of cash to spend in some noble cause (which has worked SO well in the past) is a lot bigger middleman then insurance companies or employers, both of which actually have some direct interest in keeping their customers and workers healthy and happy. The government does not, it only has the altruism of politicians who genuinely care (a rarity and one which is actually worse when they are also incompetent) and the interests in the holders of campaign dollars.
ReplyDeleteSingle-Payer: Simply naive in expecting government bureaucracy to streamline anything, efficiently corrosive to innovation, and good for business..except the healthcare business and any businesses vulnerable to the inflation caused by wildly out of control deficit spending (and don't doubt that it really can get much worse)
Phaedrus seems to hold government in utter contempt. The government is us, all of society, working together to keep the country from descending into jungle law (the law corporations prefer to follow). Phaedrus thus appears to hold us, all of society, in contempt. How depressing, to live in such disgust at one's fellow man.
ReplyDeleteSure there are corrupt politicians. There are corrupt insurance CEOs. There are corrupt bloggers and commenters. We all are fallen, sinful beings. We all can do better. We can sit back and blame others for their failings, or we can work together to fix things. Pick your favorite worldview....
I hold society in contempt when it "unites" in one giant gray blob that feasts on itself once it has devoured everything of value in its effort to save everyone. You sound like a United Nations bumper-sticker Cory.
ReplyDeleteI value the individual far more than Cory, who apparently has no faith that they can overcome obstacles in life, perpetually in need of everyone else's help.