I think the infighting shows that it's not a simple issue.
For those who have no insurance because they can't afford it, especially those who have low income and don't pay much in taxes, public healthcare is a great deal. For someone like me who gets his health coverage through work and pays quite a lot of taxes, it's worth exactly jack shit.
I think Health Insurance Reform is a damn good idea. Health insurance companies shouldn't be able to turn down coverage for literally life-saving treatments. If that irks them, they shouldn't have ever gotten in the damned business.
OTOH, a health insurance company can't make a profit without charging something more than cost. And since America is based on capitalism at all layers, you can't ever control healthcare costs without doing something extraordinary, such as outlawing profitability of all medical-related expenditures. Again, radical social change, can't be done all at once.
Ultimately, what's needed is advances in medical science that equate to Moore's Law. So that eventually, what is considered expensive treatment by current standards (i.e. open heart surgery, organ transplant, cancer therapy) is routine, cheap, OTC crap. The best path for that is nanotech.
Whatever healthcare reform that comes out of this will be a deformed half-breed and cause more harm than good. Obama needs to drop the idea and focus on other areas that need attention, such as America's sliding-into-the-sewer education system.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
syntheid
no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 02:08 am (UTC)For those who have no insurance because they can't afford it, especially those who have low income and don't pay much in taxes, public healthcare is a great deal. For someone like me who gets his health coverage through work and pays quite a lot of taxes, it's worth exactly jack shit.
I think Health Insurance Reform is a damn good idea. Health insurance companies shouldn't be able to turn down coverage for literally life-saving treatments. If that irks them, they shouldn't have ever gotten in the damned business.
OTOH, a health insurance company can't make a profit without charging something more than cost. And since America is based on capitalism at all layers, you can't ever control healthcare costs without doing something extraordinary, such as outlawing profitability of all medical-related expenditures. Again, radical social change, can't be done all at once.
Ultimately, what's needed is advances in medical science that equate to Moore's Law. So that eventually, what is considered expensive treatment by current standards (i.e. open heart surgery, organ transplant, cancer therapy) is routine, cheap, OTC crap. The best path for that is nanotech.
Whatever healthcare reform that comes out of this will be a deformed half-breed and cause more harm than good. Obama needs to drop the idea and focus on other areas that need attention, such as America's sliding-into-the-sewer education system.