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Health Care and Gun Control
Jun. 29th, 2009 04:22 pmMany of the arguments against health care reform remind me of arguments for gun control. The common thread - ignorance.
I own guns, my family (both sides) owned guns, hell my grandfather owned a gun store. He's also the only person in my family to hear a gun fired in anger - a 20 MM anti-aircraft gun in WWII. So, although not a gun expert, I'm fairly knowledgeable about guns. And I hear a lot of "arguments" that lead me to wonder if the arguer knows which end of a gun the bullet comes out of.
I have a similar problem with health care reform. Again, I am not an expert, but I've used the Google and gotten smart. Here are some "arguments" that I hear often, and find bogus.
"We need competition to provide good health insurance."
Sounds great, but I read today, that, based on American Medical Association data, "94 percent of the country's insurance markets are defined as "highly concentrated," according to Justice Department guidelines." Also, the report "describes the situation as "a market failure where a small number of large companies use their concentrated power to control premium levels, benefit packages, and provider payments in the markets they dominate." (Source here.)
Not surprisingly, this near-monopoly lack of competition has lead to an 87% increase in premiums from 2000 to now, and a 428 percent increase in profits for publicly-traded insurance companies. Now, I have no problem with profits per se, but that's coming out of my hide.
"Socialized medicine like in Canada and the UK is bad."
Well, maybe, except that they are entirely different systems!. You see, the UK has a single provider system, where all doctors and hospitals work for the government. It's the equivalent of the VA in the US. It's also not what's being proposed.
Canada has a single payer system. There, everybody has a base insurance package from the government, and some 65% of Canadians have some form of supplementary private health insurance; many of them receive it through their employers. But all the doctors and hospitals are private. It also varies by province - see here for another overview.
I own guns, my family (both sides) owned guns, hell my grandfather owned a gun store. He's also the only person in my family to hear a gun fired in anger - a 20 MM anti-aircraft gun in WWII. So, although not a gun expert, I'm fairly knowledgeable about guns. And I hear a lot of "arguments" that lead me to wonder if the arguer knows which end of a gun the bullet comes out of.
I have a similar problem with health care reform. Again, I am not an expert, but I've used the Google and gotten smart. Here are some "arguments" that I hear often, and find bogus.
"We need competition to provide good health insurance."
Sounds great, but I read today, that, based on American Medical Association data, "94 percent of the country's insurance markets are defined as "highly concentrated," according to Justice Department guidelines." Also, the report "describes the situation as "a market failure where a small number of large companies use their concentrated power to control premium levels, benefit packages, and provider payments in the markets they dominate." (Source here.)
Not surprisingly, this near-monopoly lack of competition has lead to an 87% increase in premiums from 2000 to now, and a 428 percent increase in profits for publicly-traded insurance companies. Now, I have no problem with profits per se, but that's coming out of my hide.
"Socialized medicine like in Canada and the UK is bad."
Well, maybe, except that they are entirely different systems!. You see, the UK has a single provider system, where all doctors and hospitals work for the government. It's the equivalent of the VA in the US. It's also not what's being proposed.
Canada has a single payer system. There, everybody has a base insurance package from the government, and some 65% of Canadians have some form of supplementary private health insurance; many of them receive it through their employers. But all the doctors and hospitals are private. It also varies by province - see here for another overview.
