United Healthcare isn’t the reason healthcare is unaffordable any more than Geico causes car repairs to be expensive. American demand for healthcare is insatiable, and doctors are a scarce and greedy bunch. That there is a middle man trying to get his 5% isn’t the problem.
> United Healthcare isn’t the reason healthcare is unaffordable any more than Geico causes car repairs to be expensive. American demand for healthcare is insatiable, and doctors are a scarce and greedy bunch. That there is a middle man trying to get his 5% isn’t the problem.
Spoken as a software developer who's salaries are approaching or even surpassing doctor salaries while working on optimising "engagement" (or how to make their app the most addictive).
there is a multi-pronged solution necessary that is both intertwined with insurers and also completely separate, so in that part I agree with you
the costs of services are arbitrary and need to be addressed before we can realistically deal with how any insurance pool works, in the US both parties have chiseled at this over the last decade - from getting prices more transparent, to attempting to have a large scale state negotiator - and this makes the conversation more palatable in gaining consensus
not close, but it's not as partisan as people think, despite the parallel existence of entrenched interests
what doesn't have consensus is a forced insurance pool that doesn't address the costs and has no ability to negotiate those costs (yes, this is partially due to the bill being gutted and a handicapped version being the only thing that passed) a deeper review and regulation of costs is the only thing that can help reach consensus
Wrong. 'Medical insurance companies' do absolutely nothing in terms of health care, drain massive amounts of money in what amounts to a Brazil-style (movie) system, corporate death panels, and a drain on all of our resources.
And its not even a product we want. We dont buy it. The companies we work for do, and never have to dogfood any of it. But for the rest of us, its a take it or leave it proposition.
> doctors are a scarce and greedy bunch.
Speaking of that, an MD is the ONLY profession who is solely controlled how many can apply is controlled by Congress.
Get rid of that, and that would fix a facet.
But getting rid of insurance companies would also work a great deal. Or at least, decoupling work/med insurance would be a start.
Even going full competitive capitalism OR full socialism would be better than the garbage we have now.
> any more than Geico causes car repairs to be expensive
Given how much cheaper things like body shop repairs are if you do not have insurance, is it really clear that Geico does not cause car repairs to be expensive?
And for that matter, get emergency health care without insurance and then fight the cost to get a massive reduction, and you'll wonder whether it actually is UHC and their ilk that help make healthcare unaffordable ...