patrick.net

Dan8267 says

Lazy incompetence can still be deterred by banning workers from the medical field if they screw up...

But the opposite happens because it's much more lucrative. Hospitals profit from their mistakes, insurers use "runaway jury" stories to scare doctors into paying for more insurance, etc. As Noam Chomsky would say, it isn't a deliberate conspiracy in the usual sense of that word, it's only the inevitable result of executives in large organizations pursuing their own self interest.

curious2 says

But the opposite happens because it's much more lucrative. Hospitals profit from their mistakes, insurers use "runaway jury" stories to scare doctors into paying for more insurance, etc.

A properly implemented single payer system would eliminate both those problems and provide the transparency necessary to detect and correct mistakes.

I suspect 90% of those that have been Okeydoking Obamacare the most, running around calling it a Healthcare SYSTEM, will be the most vocal critics when that mandate kicks in. People are confusing this with some government stewardship of the Nations citizens and their well being. This is only a measure to make sure that all of the people investing in medicine, hospitals, insurance all gets paid.

My Mom 72 just informed me this week she no longer has Insurance since this passed. Well she does, but for the health problems she may have at this stage in life, she might as well not have. The out of pocket prices and expenses have never been higher, and no Doctor will see her now, with out her paying her part up front first. And this is a disabled little old lady. Do these people really think they will fare better under Obamacare.

CaptainShuddup says

I suspect 90% of those that have been Okeydoking Obamacare the most, running around calling it a Healthcare SYSTEM, will be the most vocal critics when that mandate kicks in.

I'd have no problem with the individual mandate if we got single payer, a public option, and a divorce of health insurance from employment in exchange. Otherwise it's a giveaway to already too-powerful insurance companies and it's going to backfire.

Of course, I'd have sponsored a real health care reform bill like the one I described above if I were in the Senate.

CaptainShuddup says

Do these people really think they will fare better under Obamacare.

Most people see through it and know they won't fare better, but partisans believe whatever their party tells them. For example, Homeboy refuses to acknowledge that insurers are buying hospitals, which enables them to sidestep the MLR rules by shifting profit from the insurance side to the hospital side within the same parent company. Most people, on both sides, just want to believe.

Dan8267 says

Of course, I'd have sponsored a real health care reform bill like the one I described above if I were in the Senate.

...which is why you aren't. Legislation isn't drafted by public spirited engineers. It is drafted by self-interested politicians and lobbyists whose patronage networks demand payback and offer opportunities, for example Billy Tauzin and Max Baucus. When you look at how a legislative body actually works, and the product that emerges when the inputs have been digested all the way through the system, it becomes a powerful argument for limited government.