Jonathan Alter Asks 'What's Not To Like?' Health-Care Reform? Everything Is Just Fine The Way It Is.

From latest Newsweek:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/209817

Jonathan Alter

What’s Not to Like?

Reform? Why do we need health-care reform? Everything is just fine the way it is.

Jul 31, 2009

Go ahead, shoot me. I like the status quo on health care in the United States. I've got health insurance and I don't give a damn about the 47 million suckers who don't. Obama and Congress must be stopped. No bill! I'm better off the way things are.

I'm with that woman who wrote the president complaining about "socialized medicine" and added: "Now keep your hands off my Medicare." That's the spirit!

Why should I be entitled to the same insurance that members of Congress get? Blue Dogs need a lot of medical attention to treat their blueness. I'm just a regular guy and definitely deserve less.

I had cancer a few years ago. I like the fact that if I lose my job, I won't be able to get any insurance because of my illness. It reminds me of my homeowners' insurance, which gets canceled after a break-in. I like the choice I'd face if, God forbid, the cancer recurs—sell my house to pay for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment, or die. That's what you call a "post-existing condition."

- snip -

Speaking of fair, it seems fair to me that cost-cutting bureaucrats at the insurance companies—not doctors—decide what's reimbursable. After all, the insurance companies know best.

Yes, the insurance company status quo rocks. I learned recently about something called the "loading fees" of insurance companies. That's how much of every health-care dollar gets spent by insurance companies on things other than the medical care—paperwork, marketing, profits, etc. According to a University of Minnesota study, up to 47 percent of all the money going into the health-insurance system is consumed in "loading fees." Even good insurance companies spend close to 30 percent on nonmedical stuff. Sweet.

The good news is that the $8,000 a year per family that Americans pay for their employer-based health insurance is heading up! According to the Council of Economic Advisers, it will hit $25,000 per family by 2025. The sourpusses who want health-care reform say that's "unsustainable." Au contraire.

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ol' reverse psychology thing..and doing it well. Takes all the stupid arguments and sets them up as something he must have.

and he gets his point across well

Sorry I had posted this also. I overlooked your post.

claims processors who deny the highest percentage of claims. The fees include the cost of hassling your doctors and pharmacists, and every health care professional who has seen you for up to five years for records, so they can comb through them to find some detail, relevant or not, to justify a denial of your claim.

Imagine how much health care costs could be reduced if doctors and pharmacists didn't have to trade phone calls to change a prescription when your insurance company will not cover the drug your doctor decided you need.

There is just so much WASTE in the current system. Waste that is the direct product of the insurance companies' efforts to do everything and anything to increase their profits, including kill people.

Great piece.